2007 Composite Report on Implementation of the Habitats Directive
Under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive, member states must submit information on how the Directive is being implemented every six years. For the reporting period 2001 to 2006, member states provided detailed assessments for the first time on the conservation status of each of the habitat types (216) and species (estimated at 1,182) listed in the Directive and found within their territory.
On the basis of the reports submitted by the member states, the Commission is required to produce within two years a composite report including an evaluation of the progress made and the contribution that the Natura 2000 network has made towards achieving the objectives set out in Article 3 of the Directive. The European Commission published the 
Composite Report for 2001-2006 on 13 July 2009. The report is the first ever general survey showing the conservation status of biodiversity across the European Union.
Reporting and Consultation Procedure
National reports were to be submitted by June 2007. Three member states met this deadline, but member states were still submitting reports until March 2008. When a report from a Member State was first received, it was screened by the EEA’s European Topic Centre for Biological Diversity (ETC-BD) to assess the quality and completeness of the information. Requests for clarifications, additions and amendments were sent to the member state with a short deadline for submitting any missing/updated data.
In mid-2008, the European Topic Centre on Nature Conservation presented a proposal for assessment of the conservation status of Natura 2000 species and habitat types. The proposal was based on the 2007 national reports on implementation of the Habitats Directive covering the period 2001-2006.
Comments on the proposed assessment could be submitted in a public consultation procedure from 28 July to 15 September 2008. Substantiated modifications to the assessments collected during this consultation were incorporated in the ongoing report compilation process.
The national assessments and data are still available for viewing. Europe-wide species and habitat type distribution maps compiled from member state GIS data are also available alongside the data.
