Germany: The European Court of Justice imposes a penalty on Berlin. It is related to the nature protection law

Judges of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg found so Germany acted against European rules for protecting wild animals and plants and restore biodiversity. The court published its ruling on Thursday (September 21, 2023).

According to the judges, Germany violated EU nature and environmental protection law by failing to adequately implement a regulation aimed at protecting natural habitats.

In 2021, the European Commission filed a lawsuit against Germany, as well as several other EU member states, for… Non-compliance with relevant EU directives.

Thursday’s decision European Court of Justice Means that Berlin now faces heavy fines. But the ruling did not specify exactly how high it was.

The European Commission’s argument was that Germany had not set sufficient targets for nature conservation. These goals aim to protect or restore specific groups of wildlife, insects and plants that live in specific areas.

According to the court, Germany failed to designate 88 out of 4,606 areas as special protection areas on time. A further 707 sites have not been designated as mandatory conservation targets under EU law.

The Nature Conservation Act aims to protect and restore biodiversity by protecting the habitats of local plants and animals. In recent years, the Commission has intensified enforcement of environmental rules To combat climate change.

The European Court of Justice has previously issued rulings against other member states for violating environmental law. In 2019, it ruled that Portugal had failed to fulfill its obligations in this area, and a year later it also ruled on the case Greece.

Polish editorial office of Deutsche Welle