In its 2019 judgment, the EU Court of Justice ruled that Portugal had failed to follow the EU's Habitats Directive, which conserves natural habitats and rare fauna and flora.
Portugal then designated 61 sites as Special Areas of Conservation but the EU said in a statement that "this designation is not sufficient to comply with the judgment as Portugal also needs to adopt conservation objectives and measures to comply with the judgment".
(Reporting by Bart Meijer, Charlotte Van Campenhout, editing by Piotr Lipinski)
