§1.1 Purpose and nature of the document

The purpose of this document is to provide methodological guidance on the application of Article 6(3) and (4) of the Habitats Directive (1). This guidance is intended to assist authorities and national agencies in the Member States and in candidate countries, as well as developers, consultants, site managers, practitioners and other stakeholders in the application of obligations stemming from these provisions. This document presents the views of the European Commission and is not legally binding; only the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) is competent to authoritatively interpret Union law. The guidance must be read in conjunction with the directives and national legislation, and with the advice set out in the Commission notice ‘Managing Natura 2000 sites: The provisions of Article 6 of the Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC’ (2) (referred to in this document as the ‘Article 6 Guide’), which is the starting point for interpreting the key terms and concepts contained in the Habitats Directive. For ease of reading, this guidance cites the relevant parts of the Article 6 Guide. The Commission has also adopted several sector specific guidance documents for different policy areas such as energy, including renewables, mining, inland water transport, developments in ports and estuaries, agriculture and forestry (3). These documents often analyse in more detail the specificities of plan or project assessments in these particular sectors. They can therefore be used to supplement the present general guidelines with practical sector specific considerations. Under the principle of procedural autonomy, it is for individual Member States to decide how to put in place the procedural requirements deriving from the directive. It is the responsibility of the competent authority in each Member State to make the key decisions contained in the Article 6(3) and (4) assessments. In this guidance document, the term ‘assessment’ describes the whole process by which information is collected by plan or project developer, authorities, nature conservation and other agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and the public, and provided to the competent authority for consideration and evaluation. The competent authority then determines the outcomes of the assessment and reaches a decision on whether or not to approve the plan or project, and if so, under which conditions. This process recognises that the assessments required under Article 6(3) and 6(4) relies on the collection of reliable information and data by multiple stakeholders, as well as on consultations with and between them. This document is an update of the previous methodological guidance on Article 6(3) and (4) of the Habitats Directive (4) , (5). It draws on experience in implementing the Habitats Directive and on related case-law of the CJEU, as well as on a review of EU guidance and literature, case study material, feedback and suggestions following consultation with EU Member State authorities and stakeholders. The preparation of this guidance document was supported by ATECMA S.L. and Adelphi consult GmbH, under a contract with the European Commission (6).

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07