Letter of Nicolas Notaro, Head of Unit Nature - ENV B.3, European Commission
Dear Members of the Habitats Committee,
Let me introduce myself: I am Nicola Notaro and, since October the 1st, I am the Head of the Nature Unit B3 in DG ENV at the European Commission. I take over this task from my great colleague Stefan Leiner, after having spent the last 15 years working on several areas of EU environment policy, including biodiversity. I very much look forward to working with you in these challenging times.
I take this opportunity to announce that, after 2 successful years, the European Commission’s Natura 2000 Award, which honours leading nature conservation achievements, is now starting its third year. The call for applications has just been launched, and will be open until 1st December 2015.
The Award is open to any entity involved in activities related to Natura 2000. Local and national authorities, businesses, land owners, NGOs, educational institutions and individuals from all 28 EU Member States are eligible to apply for the five award categories.
The Natura 2000 Award is dedicated to rewarding excellence in the management and promotion of the network and its objectives, and to raising awareness about Natura 2000 and its benefits to European citizens. To this end, in addition to the five category prizes, an “EU Citizens’ Award” goes to the application receiving the highest number of nominations through an open public vote on the Award website.
The winners will be announced by the Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella at a high level ceremony in Brussels in May 2016.
We would greatly appreciate your support in raising the profile of the Award and reaching out to all those involved in the Natura 2000 network. We count on you to spread the word so that as many potential applicants as possible are informed and encouraged to apply.
In order to help you in the promotion of the call, we have prepared a dissemination kit – e-mails in the local languages, press release, visuals and posts for social media. You can download the materials from here:http://ec.europa.eu/
I would like to encourage you, if possible also to post a link on your website to the Natura 2000 Award website.
For more information on how to apply, please consult the website:http://ec.europa.eu/
For further tips from the best applications from 2014 and 2015, see the Benchmarking Reports: https://www.adelphi.de/en/
For specific questions/suggestions, please contact the Secretariat of the Natura 2000 Award: n2000awards@adelphi.de
I am looking forward to meeting you.
Best wishes,
Nicola Notaro
Head of Unit
Nature - ENV B.3
European Commission
Environment Directorate-General
tel. +32 2 299 04 99; fax +32 2 299 08 95
nicola.notaro@ec.europa.eu