Europe’s landscape has faced more habitat loss and fragmentation than any other continent. This is a major problem for biodiversity. Although core nature areas are now largely protected under the Natura 2000 Network, species still need to be able to move between these areas if they are to survive in the long term. A green infrastructure will help reconnect existing nature areas and improve the overall ecological quality of the broader countryside. A green infrastructure will also help maintain healthy ecosystems so that they can continue to deliver valuable services to society such as clean air and fresh water. Investing in a green infrastructure makes economic sense: maintaining nature’s capacity, for instance in mitigating against the negative affects of climate change, is far more cost-effective than having to replace these lostservices with much more costly man-made technological solutions. A green infrastructure is best achieved through an integrated approach to and management and careful strategic spatial planning. All land users and policy sectors should be engaged early on in the process of developing a green infrastructure and apportioned a share of the responsibility in its delivery. The European Commission is developing a strategy for an EU-wide Green Infrastructure as part of its post-2010 biodiversity policy.