The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has published the findings of its implementation review of Directive 1992/43/EEC, on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, and Directive 2009/147/EC, on the conservation of wild birds. The review of the implementation of those Directives was announced in November 2011 because of concerns that the authorisation process for development proposals often resulted in long delays and costs.
The main objective of the implementation review is to improve the interaction between "top 40" infrastructure projects, and other nationally significant infrastructure projects, and the Directives to reduce this delay and cost whilst making sure that the environmental and economic objectives are fulfilled.
Four key areas were identified in the review as areas where change will improve the implementation of the Directives, namely:
In order to address these four key areas, DEFRA will be implementing a package of measures, which includes the establishment of a cross-Government Major Infrastructure and Environment Unit to work at the pre-application stage with the so-called "top 40" infrastructure projects and other nationally significant infrastructure projects.
For more information, see the:
