Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service Podcasts.

In this podcast, we'll talk about pollinators, the key role they play in nature, the threats they

face, and the EU action to protect them. Stay with us.

They might not be your favourite insects out there, but without them we wouldn't have much left to eat and could even go extinct.

Now, what makes them so special?

Basically, their role as pollinators.

The vast majority of Europe's native flora and crops depend on insects like bees for pollination.

And we have a rich diversity of them in Europe, including over 2,000 species of bees,

about 500 butterfly species and almost 1,000 species of hoverflies.

But many of these wild pollinators are under threat and declining.

According to the European red list of bees, around 9% of all

bees species are threatened in the EU, and the EU Grassland Butterfly Indicator has recorded a 39%

decline in grassland butterflies since 1990. And this puts us all at risk. Worldwide changes in pollinator's diversity and numbers

have generally led to a loss of crops and wild plants. And as wild plants provide food and shelter

for many other species, this can have cascading effects within entire ecosystems. So what is the EU doing

to protect them? Vivienne Hall what is the EU doing to protect them?

Vivienne Halle is the European Parliamentary Research expert on this subject.

The EU counts a number of laws that directly or indirectly protect pollinators,

including the regulatory framework on pesticides, the common agricultural policy, and the life program, which funds projects on nature and biodiversity.

But it's the EU Habitats Directive, together with the Birds Directive, that formed the cornerstone of nature conservation in Europe and led to the establishment of the Natural 2000 network of protected areas,

which protects some key habitats for pollinating insects.

The Habitats Directive also protects certain pollinator species,

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