On 17 and 18 October 2025, EUFJE held its Annual Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the topic of Nature Conservation and Restoration. We would like to thank the Center for Climate Change Law and Governance (CLIMA) of the University of Copenhagen for hosting the conference, and the Court of Appeal of Eastern Denmark for its collaboration and help. Thank you also to all speakers and participants, on-site and online, for contributing to a rich exchange of experiences and expertise, making, once more, EUFJE’s annual conference a real forum for dialogue and synergies between judges from across Europe and beyond.
This year’s conference featured presentations by Representatives from the EU Commission on both recent developments in EU environmental policy and law and two major legal instruments of nature conservation and restoration: Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of 31 May 2023 on deforestation-free products and Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 of 24 June 2024 on nature restoration.
We also heard about case law from the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights, as well as presentations on the Convention on Biological Diversity and emerging biodiversity case law by UNEP representatives.
We were then offered a scientific aspect to include in the legal point of view with presentations by the European Environment Agency and the BIOVAL team.
Turning to EU national jurisdictions, we heard a presentation by the CLIMA team of the draft general report based on answers to the questionnaire on nature conservation and restoration from EUFJE members of various EU Member States, before hearing about national case law by judges from Spain, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Latvia, Greece, and Hungary.
Finally, we went beyond EU borders and heard presentations on nature conservation and restoration in Ukraine, and on judicial safeguards for implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in the People's Republic of China.
You will find the detailed programme here.
A report of the outcomes of the questionnaire will be prepared by CLIMA and published on this page shortly.
Last but not least, it is with great emotion that we saw EUFJE President Prof. em. Dr. Luc Lavrysen, President of the Constitutional Court of Belgium, step down from EUFJE Presidency after 17 years of caring for the Forum and making it grow into a fruitful place for judges of the European Union and beyond to exchange experiences and good practices, build or strengthen their training in environmental law, and carry out projects for a more consistent and efficient implementation and enforcement of environmental law across borders.
We are delighted to welcome Justice Kari Kuusiniemi, President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland, as the new President of EUFJE.
We are also delighted to welcome three new Vice-Presidents at the Board:
- Judge Karin De Roo, Flemish Council for Permit Disputes, Belgium
- Judge Faustino Gudin Rodríguez-Margariños, Criminal Court of Segovia, Spain
- Judge Evangelos Christias, Court of Appeal of Athens, Greece, and Justice Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Greece to the EU in Brussels.
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Draft Report Presentation EUFJE Conference 2025 in Copenhagen
