Jan 18, 2008, 16:50 GMT
Brussels - The European Union's member states must work much harder if they are to fulfil their pledges on protecting endangered species, a European Commission spokeswoman said Friday.
'It will be very difficult to achieve the target. We are working very hard on it, but member states have to make a greater effort than they have done so far,' the spokeswoman told journalists in Brussels.
'But we hope we can achieve it,' she said.
According to official figures from the commission, 52 per cent of Europe's freshwater fish species, 45 per cent of its reptile and butterfly species and 42 per cent of its indigenous mammals are threatened with extinction.
In 2001 the EU's political leaders committed the bloc to stabilizing the situation in Europe by 2010. In 2006, the commission laid out its proposals for how the Brussels central organs and member states should go about living up to that pledge.
But progress towards the target has been painfully slow, with observers accusing EU member states of dragging their heels.
'Some progress has been made to halt biodiversity loss, but much remains to be done,' a commission press release said Friday.
The comments were made as the EU's polling organization, Eurobarometer, published a report on EU citizens' views on the extinction of species and the loss of biodiversity.
According to the poll, a massive 93 per cent of Europeans believe that the preservation of endangered species is a moral obligation, while 75 per cent believe that the loss of biodiversity can lead to negative economic effects.
Twenty per cent said that they were already affected by the issue, while 70 per cent thought it would affect them and their children in the future, the report said.
The report is likely to provide ammunition to the commission as it pushes for better environmental protection across Europe.
The Brussels-based body is set to launch a PR campaign this year to 'engage Europeans in protecting biodiversity and to help channel the concerns revealed by this survey,' a press release said.
However, the survey is not an unmixed triumph for the commission. According to the poll, 80 per cent of Europeans have never heard of the commission's own flagship nature-protection scheme, Natura 2000, and few of those who have heard the name know exactly what it is.
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NoharnessJan 20th, 2008 - 17:33:18
Ooh, and look who is ahead here. Why, it's the mean old nasty United States. Catch a gear, boys and girls. You're falling behind.
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