On Monday 25 March, ministers of the EU27 will vote in the Environment Council on the political agreement reached between the EU Council and Parliament regarding legislation on nature restoration (see EUROPE 13356/9).
The text’s future is still uncertain, given that a qualified majority is needed to ratify the agreement and that several Member States have announced that they will not support the text, which aims to restore 30% of natural ecosystems by 2030.
The Member States’ permanent representatives to the EU (Coreper) will discuss the issue on Friday, 22 March. This Coreper meeting, initially scheduled for 20 March, already had to be postponed due to uncertainty over the vote’s outcome.
Among the reluctant Member States, the Netherlands and Poland have announced that they will vote against the text. Belgium, which holds the Presidency of the EU Council, has indicated that it will abstain. More recently, Hungary hinted that its vote in favour of the text was not a foregone conclusion – quite the contrary.
Budapest’s position could then tip the text over the edge, with Contexte pointing out that the 19 countries prepared to give the green light to the agreement represent only 64% of the EU’s population, as opposed to the 65% required.
As far as the European Parliament is concerned, the text was narrowly saved at the plenary session on 27 February by the pro-European parties in the House, after the EPP did an about-face (see EUROPE 13359/1). On the eve of the vote, this political group had decided to join the Conservatives and the far right – as well as part of the Renew Europe group – in voting against the Interinstitutional Agreement. This was not enough to reject the text (329 votes in favour, 275 against, 24 abstentions). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)