Contents

Overview of EU policy: Biodiversity

Journal:
Manual of European Environmental Policy
ISSN:
1467-0445
E-ISSN:
1740-3529
Publisher:
Routledge,
DOI:
10.3763/meep.2010.0133
Author:
Institute for European Environmental Policy
Information last updated:
April 2012
Publication date:
April 2012

The development of nature conservation policies in the EU did not come to the fore until the later stages of the development of the Community's environmental policy, as it was a secondary concern to the control of pollution. However, from the outset, migratory species were identified by the Commission as a possible focus for Community intervention and the protection of birds and other animal species was referred to briefly in the first Action Programme on the Environment which appeared in December 1973. The proposal for a Directive on the conservation of wild birds was put forward by the Commission three years later. However, many Member States had reservations about the Community's entry into a sphere which was both politically delicate and relatively remote from the functioning of the common market and consequently the Birds Directive was not agreed until 1979.

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