A law to restore 20% of the EU’s nature is at risk of being blocked in the European Parliament by a coalition of centre-right political groups, as a vote in favour of felling the bill passed by a slim majority in an interim committee ballot on Wednesday.
The Nature Restoration Regulation, proposed by the European Commission in June 2022, would aim to restore at least 20% of the EU’s degraded land and sea areas by 2030, as well as all areas in need of restoration by 2050.
The proposal aligns with the global target of starting or completing the restoration of at least 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030, a goal agreed by nations in December at UN biodiversity talks in Montreal.
However, a group of lawmakers on the political right – including the EPP, the biggest political group in parliament – are seeking to block the law, arguing that it could jeopardise food security and take away land from farmers.
The centrist Renew party is also split down the middle on the issue, with some party members voting today in the European Parliament’s fisheries committee to block the law and some voting in favour.
“The EPP and Renew are playing party politics at the expense of nature and farmers. The EPP is jeopardising our livelihoods, healthy ecosystems, food security, health, and biodiversity through political power struggles,” said Greens MEP Jutta Paulus, who as shadow rapporteur is coordinating her party’s position on the bill in the Parliament’s environment committee.
“The sabotage carried out by the EPP, together with right-wing extremists, is also an attack from within against the president of the European Commission. The unholy coalition of EPP, Renew, and far right-wing populists and extremists cannot be allowed to further undermine the European Green Deal,” she added.
Today’s vote means that the Parliament’s agriculture and fisheries committees have now both adopted a stance to strike down the regulation, though their views only serve as a non-binding opinion to be considered by the environment committee leading the assembly’s work on the file.
A parliamentary source close to the proceedings told Carbon Pulse that the vote in the fisheries and agriculture committees was more of a political message and that, ultimately, the environment committee vote slated for June 15 would be the one to watch.
On Wednesday morning, in the fisheries committee, an amendment to reject the Commission’s proposal was voted down with 15 in favour and 12 against. A day earlier, the proposal was rejected in the agriculture committee with 30 votes in favour to strike the file down and 16 against.
The Parliament’s regional development committee opted not to vote to give its opinion on the issue.
AMBITION CLASH
Despite the opposition in other parts of the Parliament, the lead rapporteur for the environment committee, MEP Cesar Luena of the centre-left S&D group, is proposing to increase the EU’s overarching restoration objective from 20% to 30% by 2030 and wants to create a dedicated nature restoration fund.
European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans told MEPs during a Monday parliament hearing in Parliament that the executive would not bow to demands to weaken the bill.
“There’s not such a thing as coming back, we will not come up with another proposal,” he said.
The EPP member Esther de Lange, however, showed signs of openness to dialogue, and said “let’s talk about this”.
To a concerned Greens MEP, Silvia Modig, Timmermans added: “I have not given up on EPP, I refuse to accept that we can’t have a discussion about the content of the proposal.”
Following the environment committee vote, a ballot of the full 705-strong Parliament is expected to take place in the July plenary session.
In a parallel scrutiny process, the Swedish Presidency of the Council of member states will try to reach a general approach on the file at the Environment Council on June 20. The Council, Parliament, and Commission ultimately need to agree on text for the bill to pass into law.
According to a European Environment Agency assessment, some 81% of protected habitats, 39% of protected birds, and 63% of other protected species are in a poor or bad state.
By Rebecca Gualandi and Emanuela Barbiroglio – rebecca@carbon-pulse.com
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