More than three hours of voting in the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment (ENVI), on Thursday 15 June, were not enough to seal the fate of the Nature Restoration Law but this legislation, proposed to force the restoration of at least 20% of Europe’s marine and terrestrial areas by 2030 and all ecosystems to be restored by 2050, for the sake of declining biodiversity and adaptation to climate change, is not buried.
Expected to be very close (see EUROPE 13200/21), the result of the vote is not yet known, but one thing is certain: examination of the text will continue on Tuesday 27 June.
The 88 members of the parliamentary committee rejected (44 votes in favour, 44 against, which in European law is equivalent to a rejection) the rejection amendment tabled by the EPP and its allies ECR and ID to withdraw the text, which at the beginning of the session provoked cries of joy and applause from the left-wing and liberal groups.
However, as numerous compromise amendments from the S&D, Greens/EFA, Renew Europe and The Left groups were also rejected, MEPs were forced to vote on a multitude of individual amendments - a veritable marathon that had to be interrupted to make way for votes on other dossiers at the plenary session, which began at midday. All observers were disappointed when it was decided to postpone the rest of the vote until 27 June.
The left-wing parties and Renew Europe have all chosen to see the glass as half full.
“Despite the European People’s Party’s campaign for its withdrawal, we have managed to save this law”, immediately declared César Luena (S&D, Spanish), rapporteur for this dossier, which is the subject of a political tug-of-war symptomatic of two opposing visions of tomorrow’s agriculture, increasingly apparent in the run-up to the European elections in June 2024.
The Chair of the ENVI Committee, Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, French), welcomed the rejection of the amendment “from the right and extreme right”.
The amendments adopted significantly weaken the Commission’s proposal, and even more so that of the compromises, which aimed to achieve a general collective EU objective of restoring 30% of terrestrial and marine areas by 2030.
Compromise amendments on marine ecosystems, on reversing the decline in pollinators and on financing were all adopted, which was welcomed by Mick Wallace, shadow rapporteur for The Left, who was nevertheless concerned that the regulation “is still on a knife edge”.
The objectives relating to peatlands and the entire article on forest ecosystems have been deleted - “a real disaster”, according to this MEP.
“Manfred Weber’s crusade against the Green Deal has been halted for the time being, but the fight to save nature continues”, said the German MEP, Jutta Paulus, negotiator for the Greens/EFA. “The EU’s Nature Restoration Law is a prerequisite for stopping species extinction, achieving EU climate change targets, protecting against droughts, fires and floods, and ensuring long-term food security”, stressed Ms Paulus.
Of the 31 compromise amendments, compromises 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12 and 17 were rejected.
A total of 2,345 amendments were tabled in addition to the compromise amendments. Out of 245 voting pages, MEPs stopped at page 221. In other words, they still have their work cut out for them on 27 June.
On the EU Council side, the representatives of the Member States are waiting to receive a revised compromise proposal on the text this Friday so that they can hope to agree on a draft political agreement ahead of the EU ‘Environment’ Council meeting on 20 June (see EUROPE 13201/16).
To see the 345 page voting list: https://aeur.eu/f/7it
And the 31 compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/7g3 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)