The EU is pressing ahead with its controversial Nature Restoration Law after the measure was passed by the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) on Wednesday, November 29th.
Fifty-three MEPs voted in favour of the deal, and 28 against it. As with previous votes on the issue, almost all leftist, green, and liberal lawmakers approved the law, and conservative forces opposed it, but the centrist European People’s Party (EPP) is visibly split.
As we previously reported, the Nature Restoration Law was adopted by a thin margin in the European Parliament’s plenary session back in July, with the help of the EPP’s more progressive members. After discussions with the European Council—governments of member states—the law was somewhat modified. In its current form, it aims to restore to nature at least 20% of the European Union’s land and sea areas by 2030. To reach this target, EU countries must restore at least 30% of habitat types covered by the new law that are in poor condition to good condition by 2030, increasing to 60% by 2040 and 90% by 2050.
An “emergency brake” will allow the suspension of some targets in the case of severe EU-wide food shortages.
Proponents of the law argue that it is key to combating climate change and biodiversity loss, and reduces risks to food security. Opponents of the law say it is a step too far for the green agenda, as it will cripple European farming and increase Europe’s dependence on foreign food imports.
Conservative Dutch MEP Rob Roos told The European Conservative:
This law is a one-size-fits-none proposal that could cause a total economic lockdown in the Netherlands. It is not realistic to treat all of Europe as one big nature park. Nature is important, but so are our economy, our housing and our infrastructure. When national legislation has negative side-effects, you can change the law. In the EU, this is almost impossible. This is simply not an area on which the EU should decide for member states and the passage of the Nature Restoration Law would therefore be a dark day for our sovereignty.
The law has been met with outrage by farmers all across Europe, including the Netherlands.
“The environmental burden the EU has put on our farmers has, over the years, become almost unbearable,” Richard Schenk, a research fellow with MCC Brussels, said on Monday in Brussels at an event focusing on the plight of Dutch farmers.
The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) described the agreement on the Nature Restoration Law as “disappointing and worrying”. Paul O’Brien, IFA’s Environmental chair warned that farmers “must not be castigated for feeling that Europe is walking blindly into these targets without fully understanding the consequences.”
After Wednesday’s EP committee vote the deal still has to be adopted in mid-December by the full European Parliament, and by individual member states, to come into effect.
