The European Parliament has voted to defend key regulations on the protection of birds.

MEPs on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to approve a report on the mid-term review of the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy. The report, which was approved by a majority of 592 votes in favour to 52 against, calls for the protection of the Birds and Habitats Directives – legislation which had been earmarked for review by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker at the start of his term.

The report, an “own-initiative” led by Belgian MEP Mark Demesmaeker, stressed that full implementation and enforcement of the regulations, collectively referred to as the Nature Directives, were needed to achieve the targets set out in the EU Biodiversity Strategy.

The strategy runs until 2020, by which time the EU has set itself the goal of halting biodiversity loss.

To achieve this, the EU set targets covering EU legislation on nature, agriculture, fisheries, and invasive alien species, as well as initiatives for restoring and connecting nature areas.

All Maltese MEPS voted in favour of the report except for Nationalist Party parliamentarian David Casa who did not cast a ballot.

Reacting to the vote in a statement, BirdLife Europe’s senior head of policy Ariel Brunner yesterday said: “The Parliament has today sent an unequivocal message to Timmermans and Vella [EU vice-president and environment commissioner, respectively you have no mandate to re-open the Birds and Habitats Directives, but you do have a strong mandate to get them enforced and implemented. With such an unprecedented majority backing this message, it would be inexcusable for the Commission to choose to ignore it.”