Greens/EFA group shadow rapporteur comments the EU needs to effectively punish environmental law breaches

The European Commission needs to sufficiently punish breaches in the EU nature directives, author Margrete Auken claims. Although the Natura2000 Network showed some positive impact, since 2010 biodiversity has declined in Europe ever since 2010. According to Auken, this is due to a lack of effective environmental inspections and surveillance to detect and prevent breaches. She wants the access to justice to be strengthened, i.e. by enabling NGOs to take breaches of the nature directives to trial.