Yesterday, the Nature Restoration law narrowly passed the critical vote in the European Parliament, so that the momentous initiative of the European Green Pact can continue its legislative process.
The plenary session of the Eurochamber managed to avoid the veto attempt to which the European People’s Party had subjected the European Commission’s law. The text has had the support of socialists, liberals, greens, the left and some popular MEPs, who supported the rule despite the frontal rejection expressed by the group in recent months.
The Eurochamber will now have to negotiate the final details with the Council of the EU, where member states have already agreed on a common approach. Until the last moment, the extreme right and the European People’s Party (PPE) opposed the bill, as did the large agricultural holdings.
The final text was accepted by 336 seats in favor, 300 against and 13 abstentions, after including 129 amendments added to the report prepared by the Spanish César Luena (PSOE). “This law is good even for those who voted against it. Thanks especially to scientists and young people, because they are the ones who convinced us that we had to have the law, and we will have it”, said Luena, relieved after passing the uncertain parliamentary exam.
The Eurochamber manages to overcome the obstacle posed by the position of the president of the EPP, Manfred Weber. “The extreme right and Manfred Weber’s operation have failed,” the president of the European Parliament’s environment committee, the liberal Pascal Canfin, said on his Twitter profile.
“We have fought for our convictions and we have been very close”, added Manfred Weber before emphasizing that it has been an “empty victory” for the defenders of the law, since many accepted amendments lower the content of the text.
The proposal aims to help recover European habitats, 80% of which are in poor condition, and to achieve this, it sets specific legally binding targets and obligations with recovery measures covering at least 20% of land and marine areas of the EU by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.
The file became politically poisoned since the president of the EPP, the German Manfred Weber, turned the biodiversity protection project into a spearhead weapon against the European green agenda. In the approach against the Community Executive there is also underlying a personal confrontation between Weber, who in 2019 failed in the attempt to become president of the European Commission, and compatriot and political family member Ursula von der Leyen , who succeeded.
“When we talk about the Green Pact, when we talk about restoring nature, for once we don’t think about the next election, but about the next generation,” declared the vice-president of the European Commission responsible for climate policies, social democrat Frans Timmermans .
The third vice-president and Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, was, for her part, “very satisfied” with the Eurochamber’s rejection of the European People’s Party’s veto of the law, as were the environmental groups.
