Plan zum Erhalt der biologischen Vielfalt unzureichend[en] 

With just three years to go until the 2010 target date for halting the decline in biodiversity set by European heads of state in 2001, MEPs voiced their "profound concern at the continuing loss of biodiversity", in an own-initiative Report adopted on 22 May. 

Parliament considers the Commission's 2006 Action Plan to be "insufficient to conserve biodiversity and sustain ecosystem services in the longer term". Rapporteur Adamos Adamou’s report demands that the Natura 2000 programme be strengthened in order to restore species, as well as safeguard them. It also calls for a Community response to the threat posed by the introduction of "invasive alien species and alien genotypes", suggesting that immuno-contraception could have a decisive role to play. MEPs call on the Commission to ban the introduction of genetically modified organisms and evaluate the potential threat to biodiversity posed by their introduction. 

The rapporteur requests that the Commission introduce measures to regulate deep- sea bottom trawling, and ensure adherence to scientific recommendations when setting catch quotas. His report also calls for a reduction in the imports of tropical woods. 

Reacting to Adamou's report, MEPs stressed the "urgent need for an effort to meet commitments". The report demands that more research into biodiversity be carried out, arguing that biodiversity considerations must be further integrated into agriculture and fisheries policies - and included in spatial planning at national, regional and local levels. 

The report concludes by stating that the Commission's initiatives are not getting adequate results, claiming that there is too little funding and not enough political will among the member states to make further progress. 

The Commission welcomed the report, sharing Parliament's strong concern at financial constraints to implementation and at the continuing loss of biodiversity and the related decline of ecosystems. It supports Parliament's position that the maintenance of ecosystems should become a fundamental goal of all EU horizontal and sectoral policies.