The Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU can move forward on the proposed EU nature restoration regulation, which will set binding targets for restoring at least 20% of the EU’s land and marine ecosystems by 2030 and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.
The Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) gave their approval on Wednesday 14 May on the basis of a revised compromise that takes into account the progress made in the Environment Working Group since 26 April, when the phased approach to national restoration plans received broad support (see EUROPE 13171/6). The green light was given at a time when controversy is raging over the proposal, which has been rejected by the right-wing in the European Parliament as well as by the parliamentary committees on agriculture and fisheries (see other news in this bulletin).
“The discussion was quite positive, with support for moving towards a general approach [political agreement - Ed.] in June at the Environment Council”, a diplomatic source said.
Discussions in COREPER focused on funding for restoration, the possibility of introducing changes for soft sediments, urban areas, renewable energies, some indicators for peatlands – all of which the Swedish Presidency will be analysing in order to make progress in the coming weeks. The principle of non-deterioration of habitats was not discussed.
According to the Swedish Presidency note, dated 17 May and discussed on Wednesday, the revised compromise adds, among other things, the objective of achieving land degradation neutrality and also clarifies that the overall restoration target of 20% by 2030 is to be applied separately to land and marine areas and that it is a combined effort of the Member States.
It also increases the flexibility of Member States to implement the obligations to restore land, coastal, freshwater and marine ecosystems (Articles 4 and 5).
For the first obligation, to improve the status of habitats listed in Annexes I and II, flexibility is increased by linking the target of 30% by 2030 to the total area of the habitat type rather than to each habitat group.
While the European Commission considers habitats with unknown status to be in poor condition, the compromise text provides that for land habitats, Member States have until 2030 to determine the status of unknown habitats, rather than having to apply restoration measures as soon as the regulation enters into force. The setting of quantitative restoration requirements would only apply to areas of known status.
For marine areas, Member States could furthermore derogate from the obligation to improve the status of habitats listed in Annex II by applying a lower percentage, provided that this does not prevent good environmental status.
See the text: https://aeur.eu/f/70z (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)