In a letter to European Commissioner Karmenu Vella, NFU President Meurig Raymond highlights the need for more balance within the directives with important priorities, such as food production.
The existence of the Common Agricultural Policy demonstrates the importance of farming and food production to the EU.
“It is important that the regulatory framework provided by these Directives is flexible in meeting the needs of both agriculture and the environment,” said Mr Raymond.
The Commission has launched a public consultation on the Birds and Habitats Directives and how they work in practice. The evaluation is part of a broader 'Fitness Check' due in early 2016, which takes stock of EU legislation to ensure that it is fit for purpose.
In the letter, Mr Raymond writes: ‘The Birds Directive places greater emphasis on the protection of wild birds over and above other wilder habitat management or species – we have seen this with the hedge cutting rules. We are required to cut hedges later, which is likely to have a detrimental impact on butterflies and moths, due to the way in which they use hedgerows as part of their life-cycle.
‘Meanwhile, the Habitats Directive recognises the difficulty in returning habitats to favourable status and doesn’t set timescales for achieving this. However, the Water Framework Directive has set timescales for achieving favourable status on these sites. The result is an impractical, unrealistic objective, which would be impossible to achieve in some instances.
‘We believe more effective action could be taken at national rather than EU level. The distribution of species across the EU varies greatly, so the need to protect those species varies greatly across Europe. Where protected species are relatively common in England, protection would be better led by our government.’