At the beginning of October, the European Commission has published the mid-term review of the EU Biodiversity Strategy. The document assesses whether the EU is on track to achieve the objective of halting biodiversity loss by 2020. The results show progress in many areas, but highlight the need for much greater effort to deliver commitments on implementation by Member States. Nature's capacity to clean the air and water, to pollinate crops and to limit the impacts of catastrophes such as flooding is being compromised, with potentially significant unforeseen costs to society and our economy.

According to the EU Commission “the EU adopted a Strategy to stop the loss of biodiversity by 2020, but the mid-term review highlights that “much more needs to be done on the ground to translate the EU's policies into action. Firstly, EU nature legislation needs to be better implemented by Member States. More than three quarters of the important natural habitats in the EU are now in an unfavourable state, and many species are threatened with extinction. Halting biodiversity loss will also depend on how effectively biodiversity concerns are integrated into agriculture, forestry, fisheries, regional development and trade policies”. The Commission is currently undertaking a fitness check of the EU Birds and Habitats Directives to assess whether it is achieving its valuable objectives in the most efficient way.

The Mid-Term Review is available at the following link:http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/comm2006/pdf/mid_term_review.pdf