ANNOUNCEMENT

March 12, 2021

Complaint to the European Commission about the new law threatening Natura 2000 sites

In a letter to the European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius, 13 environmental NGOs from Greece have complained of a series of breaches of EU nature legislation, by the new Law 4782/2021, passed by the Greek Parliament last week.

In their letter, the environmental NGOs list a number of infringements of Article 6 of Directive 92/43/EEC concerning the protection of biodiversity and the establishment of the European Natura 2000 network of protected areas. They point out that Article 218 of the law of the Ministry of Development comes to aggravate an already bad situation of the implementation of the country’s obligations towards EU nature legislation. The recent condemnation of Greece by the EU Court for a very serious delay in the adoption of protection measures for the Natura 2000 Network areas, the recent EU pilot request for a series of violations of Article 6 (3) of the aforementioned Directive and now the unacceptable Article 218 of Law 4782/2021, indicate an ever-deteriorating state of national biodiversity protection.

Article 218 of Law 4782/2021, in combination with the provisions of Law 4685/2020, may lead to the dismantling of any protection provided until now in the Natura 2000 sites.

The NGOs call on the European Commission to step up its efforts to encourage Greece to effectively protect biodiversity and implement the EU acquis for the protection of habitats and flora and fauna, and to expedite the proceedings for the breach of Directive 92/43/EEC by Greece. They also call on the Commission to appeal to the EU Court for precautionary measures to suspend the permits of projects and activities having a significant impact on Natura 2000 sites in Greece, pending the completion of the Special Enviornmental Studies, in order to ensure good habitat and species conservation and the integrity of protected areas.

The NGOs stress the fact that the developments of the last year have dramatically brought to the surface environmental protection and its inseparable connection with human health and well-being, not only as a legal obligation of the country, but also as one of the most important individual and social rights.

The signatories:

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