The Natura 2000 Legal Observatory is a network of legal experts from the various countries of the European Union (EU-15) gathered within the International Center for Comparative Environmental Law (CIDCE), whose purpose is to ‘study and monitoring, in Community and comparative law, of the implementation of the Natura 2000 network established by Directives 79/409 / EEC of 4 April 1979 on the conservation of wild birds (“Birds Directive”) and 92/43 / EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (“Habitats Directive”). This network was set up during a meeting held in Limoges at (CRIDEAU) in May 2002, at the initiative of professors Michel Prieur (University of Limoges), scientific director of CRIDEAU (CNRS / INRA), and Francis Haumont (Catholic University of Louvain), director of the Town Planning and Environmental Law Seminar (SERES). Funding for the Observatory is currently provided by the own funds of participating universities and research centers. It was the subject of financial support from the European Commission in 2003 from the International Center for Comparative Environmental Law.
The objectives of the Natura 2000 Legal Observatory are:
– legal monitoring in community and comparative law, in order to collect, update and disseminate legal information relating to the implementation of the Natura 2000 network in domestic and community law
– carrying out legal studies and forward-looking reflections on the various problems posed by the transposition of the Birds and Habitats directives, their interpretation by the ECJ and national courts and tribunals, and their implementation in domestic law
– monitoring and evaluation of the two directives in the successive phases of their application, accompanied, if necessary, by expert opinions on legal questions that would be asked by public and private, European, national or regional actors
– the dissemination and communication of information, through the organization of seminars, the publication of works, the publication of a newsletter, the meeting and association of the Observatory with the various public and private actors interested parties (European institutions, national authorities and administrations, NGOs, etc.)
The Observatory thus hopes to contribute to better implementation of the Natura 2000 Network within the Member States, with a view to sustainable development.
CONTACTS:
Prof. Michel Prieur
Scientific Director of CRIDEAU
President of C.I.D.C.E.
University of Limoges, Faculty of Law and Economics
32 Rue Turgot
87000 Limoges
FRANCE
Phone. +33 (0) 555 34 97 24
Fax. +33 (0) 555 34 97 23
Teacher. Francis Haumont
Director of SERES
Faculty of Law of the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL)
Place Montesquieu 2
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
BELGIUM
Phone: +32/10/47 47 07
Fax: +32/10/47 47 09
LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN NATURA 2000 NETWORK
COUNTRY – NAME
GERMANY – Wolfgang KÖCH
Moritz REESE
Gerd WINTER
AUSTRIA – Otto DIETRICH
BELGIUM – Charles-Hubert BORN
Francis HAUMONT
Etienne ORBAN de XIVRY
Michel EASTER
DENMARK – Peter PAGH
SPAIN – Fernando LOPEZ RAMON
José Luis BERMEJO LATRE
FINLAND – Erkki HOLLO
Antti BELINSKIJ
FRANCE – Michel DUROUSSEAU
Jessica MAKOWIAK
Michel PRIEUR
Jochen SOHNLE
Pascale STEICHEN
Aline TREILLARD
Marios HAIDARLIS
Antonios SIFAKIS
IRELAND – Oran DOYLE
ITALY – Domenico AMIRANTE
LUXEMBOURG – Edgar ARENDT
NETHERLANDS – Marjan PEETERS
Jacqueline ZIJLMANS
POLAND – Przemyslaw SIKORA
PORTUGAL – Maria Alexandra ARAGÃO
UNITED KINGDOM – Katryn LAST
SWEDEN – Jan DARPÖ
LIST OF MEETINGS OF THE EUROPEAN NATURA 2000 NETWORK
Limoges, May 16, 2002
Louvain-La-Neuve, September 26, 2002
Seminar of Caserta / Piedimonte Matese (Italy), May 30-31, 2003
Meeting at the University of Thessaly, Volos (Greece), 19-20 March 2004
Meeting in Limoges-Montaigut, September 13-15, 2004
Meeting in Helsinki (Finland), 29 September-1 October 2005
Meeting in Coimbra (Portugal), May 20, 2006
Meeting in Paestum (Italy), April 18-19, 2008
Meeting in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), March 31, 2011
Meeting in Zaragoza (Spain), October 9, 2012
Meeting in Utrecht (Netherlands), 1-2 November 2013
Meeting in Leipzig (Germany), October 17, 2014
Meeting in Bansko (Bulgaria), 13-14 May 2016
LIST OF THE NETWORK’S RESEARCH TOPICS
1) The transposition of the provisions relating to Natura 2000 into domestic law
2) Provisional protection of sites deserving to be classified as SPAs and sites likely to be recognized as Sites of Community Importance (SCI) by the European Commission
3) Geographical scope of the Natura 2000 site protection regime (art. 6 § 2 to 4 of the Habitats Directive)
4) Right of ownership and establishment of the Natura 2000 network
5) Natura 2000 site management plans
6) Management of landscape elements important to ensure the coherence of the network (implementation of articles 3.3 and 10 of the Habitats Directive)
7) Basic concepts of the Natura 2000 regime.
8) Environmental responsibility and Natura 2000
9) Harm to Natura 2000 sites
10) Natura 2000 and the judge
11) Agriculture and nature conservation
12) Restoration of aquatic ecosystems – towards the reestablishment of a blue infrastructure within and outside the Natura 2000 network?
LIST OF NETWORK PUBLICATIONS
– Les difficultés de mise en oeuvre de la directive Habitats, journée d’étude, Limoges 30 janvier 2001, Actes et Communications, n°19, 2002, économie et sociologie rurales, INRA
– La conservazione della natura in Europa. La Direttiva Habitat ed il processo di costruzione della rete “Natura 2000”, a cura di Domenico Amirante, Collana di diritto e socità, FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2003 (actes du colloque de Caserta / Piedimonte Matese 30-31 mai 2003).
– Natura 2000 et le droit. Aspects juridiques de la sélection et de la conservation des sites Natura 2000 en Belgique et en France, Actes de Louvain-la-Neuve (26 septembre 2002), Éditions Bruylant, 2004.
– Le réseau écologique européen Natura 2000, sous la direction de Jean-Marc Février et Claude Deves, Collection Carré Droit, LITEC, 2004
– La mise en place du réseau Natura 2000 : les transpositions nationales. Sous la direction de Jessica Makowiak. Éditions PULIM (Presses Universitaires de Limoges), mars 2005. (cliquer ici pour télécharger la table des matières au format .pdf)
– « Le droit de propriété et Natura 2000 », Actes du colloque organisé à Volos (Université de Thessalie, Grèce), sous la direction de M. Pâques, Éditions Bruylant, Belgique, 2005.
– « La gestion des sites Natura 2000, La mise en place des cadres nationaux », sous la dir. de O. CHRISTOPOULOU, M. HAIDARLIS, et M. DUROUSSEAU, University of Thessaly Press, Volos, Grèce, février 2009
– Aménagement du territoire, urbanisme et réseau Natura 2000, CEDOUA, (dir. A. ARAGAO), ed. Almedina, Coimbra, vol. 2, 2009.
– Les responsabilités environnementales dans les sites Natura 2000 (dir. Mircea DUTU), Revue roumaine de droit de l’environnement, supplément 2011.
– Natura 2000 et le juge, Situation en Belgique et dans l’Union européenne (dir. Ch.-H. Born), Bruylant, 2014.
– Compensation in Nature Conservation Law, Utrecht Law Review (revue en ligne), juin 2014.
A venir :
– Restauration des écosystèmes aquatiques – vers le rétablissement d’une infrastructure bleue dans et en dehors du réseau Natura 2000 ?