{"id":25197,"date":"2015-05-20T12:42:28","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T10:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eeb.org\/?p=25197"},"modified":"2017-06-26T13:29:23","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T11:29:23","slug":"state-of-nature-report-highlights-importance-of-eu-nature-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/state-of-nature-report-highlights-importance-of-eu-nature-regulations\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Nature report highlights importance of EU nature regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The European Commission today published\u00a0its\u00a0<span class=\"s2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/europa.eu\/rapid\/press-release_IP-15-4965_en.htm\">EU State of Nature<\/a>\u00a0report<\/span>. This underlines the dire state of European nature, but it also highlights that when properly protected and managed, nature can recover.\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Reacting to the report,<b>\u00a0Pieter de Pous, EU Policy Director\u00a0<\/b>said:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;<em>Following hot on the heels of yesterday&#8217;s Better Regulation package [1],this report shows once again that environmental legislation works when implemented seriously and that it is needed more then ever before. The fact more than 100,000 EU citizens have in less than a week called on the European Commission to defend EU nature protection laws shows such legislation has massive popular support [2]. The message is crystal clear: EU nature policies should be better enforced, not revised, and sustainable development made the overarching priority of the EU<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">ENDS<b>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Notes to editors<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">[1] The European Commission yesterday agreed its \u201cBetter Regulation\u201d package during its College meeting in Strasbourg. A key tenet of the package is the reduction of the number of laws passed in the EU each year. Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans and his team have already\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/brussels\/2015\/05\/15\/when-in-doubt-call-frans-how-europe-seeks-to-avoid-absurd-laws\/\"><span class=\"s2\">shrunk the planned rate of legislation for 2015 by 75 per cent<\/span><\/a>. The more usual rate of 100 laws a year has been slashed to just 23 in the pipeline for this year. See\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/eeb.org\/commission-plans-to-reduce-red-tape-cross-a-red-line-for-democracy-and-the-environment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span class=\"s2\">here<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for the EEB\u2019s reaction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">[2] EEB together with other NGOs from across Europe have launched a public e-action &#8220;Nature Alert&#8221; asking people to participate in the EU Public Consultation and call on\u00a0the Commission to defend EU Nature Directives:\u00a0<\/span>http:\/\/www.eeb.org\/index.cfm\/activities\/biodiversity-nature\/biodiversity\/nature-alert\/.<span class=\"s1\">\u00a0During the first week over 100,000 people joined the call. Twitter messages are sent to President Juncker, VP Timmermans and European Environment Commissioner Vella with the hashtag #NatureAlert.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The EEB last week sent a\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/eeb.org\/wpfd_file\/letter-to-juncker-on-better-regulation-package\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span class=\"s2\">letter<\/span>\u00a0<\/a>to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to call for \u201ceffective and ambitious new laws to tackle the real challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, overconsumption of resources and protection of human health\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">A group of\u00a0more than 50 non-governmental organisations, including the EEB, have set up a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.foeeurope.org\/sites\/default\/files\/other\/2015\/brwn_founding_statement_and_members.pdf\"><span class=\"s2\">Better Regulation Watchdog<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to keep an eye on the Commission. The Watchdog will work to ensure that better regulation means laws to improve social, environmental, labour, consumer, economic and public health standards for citizens and an inclusive and competitive Europe founded on economic, social and environmental sustainability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">For further information, please contact:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Pieter de Pous, Director of Policy,\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:pieter.depous@eeb.org\"><span class=\"s2\">pieter.depous@eeb.org<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European Commission today published\u00a0its\u00a0EU State of Nature\u00a0report. This underlines the dire state of European nature, but it also highlights that when properly protected and managed,<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":1190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117,116,3,4],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-25197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","category-nature-agriculture","category-news","category-press-release","tag-nature"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Nature-Credit-Wild-Wonders-of-Europe-Mark-Hamblin-web.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}