A legal dispute that began more than eleven years ago has ended with the Court of Justice of the European Union imposing a €10 million fine on Portugal for failing to designate 61 Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and implement the required conservation measures.
The ruling is final and cannot be appealed. Portugal’s Ministry of Environment and Energy has acknowledged the country’s failure to meet the legal requirements.
The Habitats Directive, created to protect Europe’s biodiversity, established the Natura 2000 network. Under this framework, the European Commission and member states identify Sites of Community Importance (SCIs). Once identified, each member state must designate these areas as Special Areas of Conservation within a maximum period of six years. These protected zones are subject to strict rules intended to preserve important habitats and species, according to a press statement from the CJEU.
The case dates back to December 2014, when the court first warned the Portuguese government for failing to properly identify sites of community importance in both the Mediterranean and Atlantic regions of the country.
The situation escalated in 2019 when the European Commission launched formal legal action. Although Portugal eventually identified the relevant sites, authorities did not meet the six-year deadline required to designate the 61 areas as Special Areas of Conservation or establish the necessary objectives and protection measures.
In 2024, the European Commission requested additional legal action from the court, this time asking for financial penalties due to the ongoing delays.
The CJEU has now confirmed a €10 million fine for Portugal for repeatedly failing to comply with the Habitats Directive. In addition to the lump-sum penalty, the court imposed a daily fine of €41,250. This amount corresponds to 55 sites that remain unprotected multiplied by €750 per site per day. The daily penalty will gradually decrease by €750 for each site that is brought into compliance, according to the court’s statement.
Portugal’s Environment Minister, Graça Carvalho, told the newspaper Expresso that after so many years of delays the financial penalty could not be avoided. However, she emphasized that the court’s decision was based on the situation as it stood in March 2025. Since that time, 53 of the 61 Special Areas of Conservation have already been approved. Carvalho said that the work is now close to completion and that Portugal is approaching full compliance with its obligations under the Habitats Directive.
Portuguese authorities are currently requesting a revision of the daily penalty in order to reflect the progress made in approving additional conservation sites.
The designation of protected areas has faced resistance in several municipalities across the country. Stricter biodiversity protection rules can limit construction development, restrict water extraction, and control motorized activities within designated conservation zones.
In addition, severe wildfires during the previous summer created technical challenges that delayed the assessment and designation of some of the remaining areas.
The court’s decision also comes at a time when environmental policy across the European Union is under debate. Several environmental initiatives have recently faced delays, including legislation aimed at reducing deforestation in supply chains and extended deadlines granted to car manufacturers to meet pollution reduction targets.
According to the Biodiversity Information System for Europe, protected areas now cover approximately 26.4 percent of land and 12.3 percent of marine waters across the European Union. Despite this progress, environmental monitoring shows that most of the 232 habitat types protected under the EU Habitats Directive continue to experience ongoing ecological deterioration.
