The European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries recommended to the Committee on the Environment, as the committee responsible, that it reject the proposal for a regulation on nature restoration.
It thus imitated the vote of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture the day before (see EUROPE 13186/15).
The rejection amendment was narrowly adopted in the Committee on Fisheries (15 votes for rejection, 13 against).
MEPs from the S&D and Greens/EFA groups criticised the results of the vote, as did several NGOs, in a joint statement (Oceana, Seas At Risk, BirdLife Europe, Bloom, ClientEarth). The NGOs urge Parliament’s Committee on the Environment to “listen to citizens and scientists and maintain the Commission’s proposal in the vote on 15 June”.
The stakes are high, according to these NGOs, as the EU needs “legally binding rules to restore damaged marine ecosystems, reverse biodiversity loss and ensure the long-term prosperity of coastal communities, including fishermen and tourism”.
Caroline Roose (Greens/EFA, French) said the vote was “bad news” for biodiversity in the EU and for European fishermen who depend on healthy ecosystems. The proposed regulation was “hijacked by a part of the EPP to be used in the conflict between Ursula von der Leyen and Manfred Weber for the next presidency of the European Commission”, Ms Roose explained. She also said that the national contexts in the Netherlands, Spain and France have led “a significant proportion” of Renew Europe MEPs not to support this Nature Restoration Law.
Following the votes on these two opinions, the EPP group in the European Parliament, for its part, called on the Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, to “withdraw the proposal for a law on nature restoration” (see EUROPE 13185/7). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)