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The assessment of significant effects on the integrity of “Natura 2000” sites under Article 6(2) and 6(3) of the Habitats Directive

S. Möckel

Published 2017 in Nature and Conservation

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the question of how the significance of potential adverse effects on Natura 2000 sites – comprising sites of Community importance (SCI) and special protection areas (SPA) – can be determined legally and methodologically within the scope of appropriate assessments for projects and plans in accordance with Article 6(3) of the Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC1 (HD) and whether the results can be transferred to the prohibition of disturbance and deterioration stipulated in Article 6(2) HD. The assessment of significance is important as, according to the European Court of Justice (ECJ)2 and the German Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG)3, a project or plan is only permissible if, in the light of the best scientific knowledge in the field and without reasonable scientific doubt, the plan or project will not have lasting significant adverse effects on the integrity of that site. In this process, all aspects of the plan or project have to be identified which may, either independently or in combination with other plans or projects, affect the conservation objectives of the site concerned. This also includes a specialist forecast. Furthermore, closer 1 Council Directive of 21.5.1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, OJEU no. L 206 of 22.7.1992, p. 7 et sqq. 2 All ECJ decisions can be located based on their file number and can be freely accessed under: curia. europa.eu/juris/recherche.jsf?language=en. 3 From 2002 onwards, BVerwG decisions can be located based on their file number and can be freely accessed under: http://www.bverwg.de/entscheidungen/entscheidungen.php. References to the locations of earlier decisions are provided in this article. Nature Conservation 23: 57–85 (2017) doi: 10.3897/natureconservation.23.13602 http://natureconservation.pensoft.net Copyright Stefan Möckel. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. REVIEW ARTICLE Launched to accelerate biodiversity conservation A peer-reviewed open-access journal

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