Protection of wild fauna: conclusion of the 1995 Agreement on the conservation of African-Eurasian migratory waterbirds

 The committee adopted the report by its chairman, Karl-Heinz FLORENZ (EPP-ED, DE), broadly approving the proposal under the consultation procedure, subject to a few amendments:

- as the Agreement should also be viewed in terms of contributing to sustainable development, the committee inserted a new recital saying that, in accordance with the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, migratory waterbirds should be conserved for future generations;

- MEPs said that the Commission's negotiating mandate under Article 3 went too far: rather than enabling the Commission to negotiate all amendments to the Agreement, the negotiating mandate should, as is usual with international agreements, be confined to the Annexes to the Agreement (i.e. amendments pursuant to Article X(5). However, the committee felt that authority should be conferred on the Commission to exercise the right to enter a reservation pursuant to Article X(6) of the Agreement where an amendment to the Annexes has not been transposed into the relevant Community legislation within 90 days of its adoption.