EU legislators failed to advance past initial exchanges in their first attempt to finalise the bloc’s divisive nature restoration bill on Thursday, instead asking officials to craft compromises in an effort to break an impasse. 

Negotiators from the Council of member states, European Parliament, and European Commission met for their first ‘political’ trilogue talks, but after exchanging opinions asked the Commission to draw up a potential way forward, effectively returning the talks back down to a ‘technical’ level, one well-placed source told Carbon Pulse.

The Parliament in particular struggled to reach its position on the bill to restore at least 20% of the bloc’s sea and land areas by 2030, with many right-leaning members fighting to kill it outright in the name of food security. 

The assembly eventually adopted a stance closer to that of the Council’s method of grouping together targets for more flexibility – a move that had raised expectations that the trilogue talks would go smoothly.

Yet, a Council spokesperson for the Council told Carbon Pulse that the negotiators were “distant” on some key issues, and therefore decided to return to technical level discussions.

By Emanuela Barbiroglio  – emanuela@carbon-pulse.com