Our role in Europe

 
JNCC provides advice on environmental and other EU policies that affect the environment, to the UK as a Member State and to its devolved governments, the country conservation bodies and EU institutions.  We do this through:

 

  • Working to integrate environmental concerns into other sectors and to help policy-makers and economists understand the role of biodiversity in a resilient environment 
  • Taking an overview of, and co-ordinating reporting on, European Directives.
  • Helping Government to co-ordinate UK input to EU biodiversity governance.
  • Assisting the site designation process of the Natura 2000 network under the EC Birds and Habitats Directives
  • Intelligence gathering, “horizon-scanning” and analysis. This area of work is carried out by the UK Nature and Landscape Office (UKNLO), which is based in Brussels and run by JNCC in partnership with the country conservation bodies. The office provides early intelligence to stakeholders on what is happening in the EU. The work is supported by a range of contracted products and services on European policies for, or affecting, the environment provided by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP). 

 

JNCC also provides a supporting role for implementation and guidance at the EU level, including advice on research development and data provision.

 

The EU has a role in global biodiversity conservation as a member of international initiatives, including Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs). We provide advice to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar) and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and its Agreements (AEWA, EUROBATS, ASCOBANS, ACCOBAMS amongst others) at the European level.