European Diary: The colourful posters popping up around Brussels bearing pictures of eagles, wolves and bears heralded the start of "green week" in Europe yesterday.
A brainchild of the European Commission's environment directorate, the initiative aims to get the public, businesses and policy makers to think about how they can change their behaviour to help the environment. This year the theme is encapsulated by the slogan "Biodiversity is life," and to prepare for today's official launch of green week the commission unveiled a plan to halt biodiversity loss by 2010.
"The loss of biodiversity is one of the most important environmental threats that mankind is facing along with climate change," said environment commissioner Stavros Dimas. "The extinction of plants and animals is an irreversible loss to humanity. We need to be investing in sustaining the variety of life, in sustaining health of the ecosystems that in turn underpin our prosperity and well being."
The strategy calls for a greater commitment from member states to propose, designate and effectively manage nature conservation sites. It also says that the money allocated for conservation in the EU budget is not enough. EU states will have to spend their own money on measures to protect their natural habitats and ecosystems, it says.
The target of stopping biodiversity loss in Europe by 2010 is not new. Alarmed by a rapid decline in Europe of certain types of animals and plants, EU leaders agreed in 2001 to set 2010 as the date to restore habitats and natural systems.
Unfortunately, progress has been slow. A report published today by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) on biodiversity loss will show that the EU will not reach its targets in many key environmental sectors.
Despite success in halting the decline in forests many plants and birds, including the white-backed woodpecker, still face extinction. The threat is even greater in agricultural areas where the bird population has declined by a third between 1980 and 2002. Biodiversity loss in all European seas and coasts is considerable and shows few signs of being reduced, warns the report. A report published this month by the independent think tank, the Institute for European Environmental Policy, blames the Lisbon Agenda for undermining key environmental objectives laid down by the commission. The recent overriding concern for growth and jobs has been used to call into question the very legitimacy of community regulatory action in many fields, including the environment, it says.
"It isn't the case that the environmental directorate is in control of environmental policy," says David Wilkinson, a co-author of the report. "Barroso [ José Manuel, president of the European Commission] has set up a number of special groups including other directorates such as enterprise and competition that are essentially mechanisms that second guess DG [ directorate general] Environment."
He cites delays in the publication of the directorate's thematic strategies and recent changes to commission proposals on curbing air quality as examples of political tinkering with environmental policy. A commission strategy to cut bureaucracy by removing thousands of pages of EU regulations is viewed by industry as a way to cut costs and promote competitiveness rather than maintain standards, said Mr Wilkinson.
The commission says it has not gone soft on the environment. "It is true that there is less new legislation being passed than in the 1990s but there is a focus on ensuring that states comply with the rules," says one commission source. "Environment is also more mainstream now than in the 1990s when it was more difficult to take legal actions against states."
But clearly there are divergent goals pursued by different commissioners. Ironically, commissioner Dimas's biodiversity strategy noted with alarm "collapsing fish stocks" while at the same time in an adjacent building fisheries commissioner Joe Borg was announcing a plan to provide up to €4 billion in aid to fishermen. Despite strong support from Spain, Italy and France, Mr Borg's proposal was blocked by Britain, Germany and Sweden, who warned it could decimate dwindling stocks.
Some EU states are also changing their attitude to environmental policy. Germany, which played a significant role in pushing the environmental agenda at EU level in the 1980s, is less active on environment, according to Hiltrud Breyer, a German Green Party MEP.
"The new environment minister in Germany doesn't want to have any conflicts with industry," says Ms Breyer. The biggest lobbying exercise ever seen in Brussels was launched last year by German interests - both government and private - to water down tough new legislation on chemical regulation.
Other member states, including Ireland, also successfully lobbied to amend the legislation.