Date and time published:2026-06-16 12:47:45

The European Commission has launched a “stress test” of the Birds and Habitats Directives, the cornerstone of EU nature protection for over 50 years. SER-Europe’s Legal Working Group, representing distinguished legal experts from across the European Union, has reviewed this process carefully. Our conclusion is clear: 

The stress test rests on the wrong assumptions, and weakening the Nature Directives would be both counterproductive and unlawful.

Here is our position:

1. There is no objective justification for reassessing the relevance of the Nature Directives. The scientific and legal foundations underpinning them remain as sound as ever.
2. The problem is insufficient implementation, not legislation. Europe’s nature crisis stems from an implementation deficit, making the Directives more necessary today, not less.
3. Legal uncertainty is a consequence of non-compliance, not of the Directives themselves. Those who fail to comply cannot cite the resulting confusion as a reason to weaken the rules.
4. Non-compliance must not be rewarded. Relaxing the Directives in response to widespread failure to apply them would set a deeply damaging precedent.
5. The Nature Directives are legally balanced, proportionate and flexible. They already provide the tools to accommodate economic and social realities, when applied correctly.
6. The stress test is built on a false premise. Nature conservation does not hinder competitiveness. It is the foundation of long-term economic resilience. The framing of nature protection as a cost rather than an investment is not supported by evidence.
7. Weakening the Nature Directives undermines the EU’s own overarching objectives of the EU Treaty.
8. Lowering Europe’s conservation standards would be contrary to EU law itself. This is not a political opinion, it is a legal assessment, it goes against the principles of the Treaty.

Europe is not suffering from too much nature protection. It is suffering from too little, applied too inconsistently.

We call on the European Commission and Member States to redirect their energy from questioning the Directives toward implementing and enforcing them.