‘A damning indictment’: European court finds Ireland failed to implement EU habitats directive

Ireland has lost a long-running case brought by the European Commission over failures to adequately implement the EU Habitats Directive for the past 20 years.

The Commission accused Ireland of infringing the directive by failing to designate 217 of 423 sites as special areas of conservation (SACs); neglecting to set “site-specific detailed conservation objectives” (SSCOs) at 140 sites; and failing to establish necessary conservation measures to maintain or restore a favourable conservation status on species and habitats.

In a judgment on Thursday, the European Court of Justice found in favour of the commission but, significantly, it did not, as alleged, find “a persistent and systematic practice of establishing conservation measures that are not sufficiently precise and that fail to address all significant pressures and threats”.

The court awarded costs against the Government, but the issue of fines has not been determined. However, in spite of the scale of infringements, it is believed Ireland will be given a period by which time it must become fully compliant before the possibility of heavy fines arises.

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The directive requires Ireland to identify a network of Natura 2000 sites where important or endangered animal or plant species, or certain rare or vulnerable habitat types are present, to a degree that is significant at a European level.

The case focused on priority habitat types at a wide range of Irish sites, namely coastal lagoons and blanket bogs, and on “a particularly endangered species”, the freshwater pearl mussel.

Once identified, these sites must be designated in a legally-binding way. SSCOs are required for each site, having regard to the threats and pressures on the various species or habitat types including “precise and specific conservation measures”. It was claimed that Ireland had not satisfactorily completed any of these steps in respect of SACs in its territory.

Long-term neglect

Minister for Environment and Climate Eamon Ryan said the outcome “is an inevitable result of long-term neglect and failure”.

“We, like many European countries, have not prioritised the protection of nature and biodiversity in the way that we should,” he said, adding that the case brought into sharp relief the critical importance of ensuring the EU Nature Restoration Law was progressed and actioned.

The Green Party leader said this judgement related to implementation of the directive prior to 2019, while the current Government had “committed to making climate, nature restoration and biodiversity integral to our policies and actions”.

Since taking office, Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan has made significant progress for nature and biodiversity, he said, backed last year by an unprecedented budget exceeding €90m for nature and wildlife.

Mr Noonan said he was studying the judgment with colleagues in the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and in consultation with the Attorney General, and would not comment in detail immediately, other than to acknowledge the judgment’s significance.

“This Government has made very considerable progress in recent years: we are transforming and renewing the NPWS and have created a dedicated directorate to lead on the implementation of conservation measures across all of Ireland’s Natura 2000 sites,” he added.

NPWS director general Niall Ó Donnchú said: “We are all aware that across Europe there is a huge effort required in relation to the protection of nature and biodiversity. This is something that the NPWS takes extremely seriously – our mission is to protect nature, and we are committed to delivering on this.”

Damning indictment

Irish Wildlife Trust campaigns officer Pádraic Fogarty said the judgment was not unexpected given the court’s advocate general had issued their opinion some months ago which was mirrored in the findings.

“They are a damning indictment of Ireland’s failure to protect nature over the past two decades and are a direct consequence of previous governments’ decision to defund the NPWS while simultaneously launching expansion plans for food and drinks [sectors],” he said. “Basically, the State has put profit before clean water and healthy land and sea that we all depend on.”

Mr Fogarty acknowledged that the current Government “has made some progress in addressing these issues”, but he added that the State remains “far from seeing the transformative changes that we know are needed if we are to implement environmental laws and ultimately address the biodiversity and climate emergency”.

“We’re seeing a new forestry programme that that will be based predominantly on monocultures of exotic conifers, continued illegal peat extraction in SACs, a Wildlife Bill before the Dáil that will remove protections from areas designated for protecting bogs, resistance to any restrictions on trawling the ocean, even in ‘marine protected areas’, and an agriculture sector whose environmental footprint is out of control. And many politicians and sectoral interests are still opposing the [EU] Nature Restoration Law.”

While people may focus on fines that may arise following the ruling, he said: “The real consequences are much more far reaching. The collapse of nature has real consequences for people’s lives today and those of future generations. Only a radical shift in how we use our land and seas will begin to reverse this damage.”