The first European law for the restoration of degraded natural spaces is nearing the finish line after a hectic legislative process that has been impacted by the revolt of European farmers and the opposition of conservative and far-right parties to the main measures of the the European green agenda. The text was approved today by 329 votes in favor, 275 against and 24 abstentions by the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The margin of approval is wider than expected after the European People’s Party positioned itself against the measure, a result that suggests that, although a part of its MEPs have joined forces with the extreme right to try to overthrow the text, a percentage higher than expected has joined social democrats, liberals and greens and has supported the measure, a key piece of the Green Pact promoted by the ‘Von der Leyen commission’, now in question.
The new regulations extend conservation obligations beyond the areas of the Natura 2000 Network (although it will begin with these spaces) and require the repair of at least 20% of the EU’s degraded terrestrial and marine ecosystems by 2030 and all of them by 2050. For the sake of compromise, in a clear nod to farmers, the text provides for the possibility of activating an ’emergency brake’ to, in certain circumstances, suspend repair obligations but maintains the obligation to maintain wood dead in forests to improve biodiversity, also for the elimination of artificial barriers to river beds, to reverse the decline of pollinator populations and to promote marine restoration through adequate fisheries management, in addition to the prohibition of reducing spaces urban greens.
“We have approved the first Nature Restoration Law in history. We went from protecting and conserving nature to repairing it,” the speaker of the proposal, MEP César Luena (PSOE), who was also the negotiator of the European Parliament with the Council during the six-month period of the Spanish presidency, when both institutions agreed on a compromise text less ambitious than the original proposal but of greater scope than the hostility with which it was received by the chamber led one to expect. “Excellent news,” tweeted the vice president of the Government for the Energy Transition, Teresa Ribera, who defended the text during the Spanish presidency of the Council. “Thank you to everyone who has supported it. The support of the popular Spaniards is missing,” Ribera added.
The result of the vote in the European Parliament is a personal defeat for the leader of the EPP, Manfred Weber, who has twice unsuccessfully tried to get the European Commission to withdraw the proposal on the grounds that the necessary preparatory work had not been carried out. . For the law to come into force, the text must now be ratified by the Council of the EU, the institution where the Governments of the Twenty-seven sit, a procedure that should not bring surprises although in recent times it has been seen as the states Members reopened previously agreed dossiers at the last minute.
The approval of the European law, despite the reductions it has suffered during previous negotiations, “lays the foundations to begin the large-scale restoration of the degraded ecosystems of the European Union,” the environmental organization Greenpeace celebrated in a statement. , which demands to start working immediately “on a National Restoration Plan that includes maximum public participation.” For the organizations Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth, Ecologists in Action, Greenpeace, SEO/BirdLife and WWF, “at a time when the continent is devastated by floods, droughts and fires, this standard will help ensure a safer, more sustainable future and healthy for all people in Europe.
