Mr. NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list any of the administrative implications of the proposed draft European Commission directive on wildlife habitat protection which he will seek to raise with the Commission; and what representations he has had on the subject from the National Farmers Union.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe draft directive proposed a rigid and bureaucratic system of nature conservation. At the Environment Council in Brussels on 24 November, member states unanimously rejected this approach. The majority agreed that the objective of any Community action should be to assist member states, as necessary, to achieve implementation of the relevant existing international conventions.
We have received no representations from the National Farmers Union on this subject.