Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-06-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what representations her Department has made to the European Commission on the proposed reform of the EU Nature Directive.

Rory Stewart

Defra submitted evidence to the European Commission in April 2015 to inform their review of the EU Nature Directives. A Commission delegation then visited the UK in June 2015 to discuss the Directives in greater detail with Government officials, business group representatives and environmental non-governmental organisations. I spoke at EU Environment Council in December 2015 in support of improving how the Nature Directives are implemented and to make clear that the UK didn’t wish to see the Directives renegotiated. Defra’s written evidence and a recording of the December Council meeting are available on the European Commission website.