Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Environment - Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora - Directive 92/43 - Sites of Community importance - Identification - Drawing up of the national list of sites - Taking account of economic, social and cultural requirements or regional and local characteristics - Not permitted

(Council Directive 92/43, Arts 2(3), 3(1), first subpara., and 4(1))

Summary

$$Article 4(1) of Directive 92/43 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora must be interpreted as meaning that a Member State may not take account of economic, social and cultural requirements or regional and local characteristics, as mentioned in Article 2(3) of that directive, when selecting and defining the boundaries of the sites to be proposed to the Commission as eligible for identification as sites of Community importance.

To produce a draft list of sites of Community importance, capable of leading to the creation of a coherent European ecological network of special areas of conservation, the Commission must have available an exhaustive list of the sites which, at national level, have an ecological interest which is relevant from the point of view of the directive's objective of conservation of natural habitats and wild fauna and flora. Only in that way is it possible to realise the objective, in the first subparagraph of Article 3(1) of Directive 92/43, of maintaining or restoring the natural habitat types and the species' habitats concerned at a favourable conservation status in their natural range, which may lie across one or more frontiers inside the Community. Having regard to the fact that, when a Member State draws up the national list of sites, it is not in a position to have precise detailed knowledge of the situation of habitats in the other Member States, it cannot of its own accord, whether because of economic, social or cultural requirements or because of regional or local characteristics, delete sites which at national level have an ecological interest relevant from the point of view of the objective of conservation without jeopardising the realisation of that objective at Community level.

( see paras 22-23, 25 and operative part )