The EU law for the restoration of nature has failed for the time being before the environment committee of the EU Parliament. The result also endangers the further plans of Commission President von der Leyen for a more sustainable Europe.
The result was extremely close: half of the members of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee voted in favor of the nature restoration law, the other half against. The project initially failed.
The so-called renaturation law provides for at least one fifth of the damaged land and water areas in the EU to be rehabilitated by 2030 – for example, drained moors rewetted or forests reforested. While one side of the deputies considers the law to be essential, it meets with categorical rejection on the other side.
Divided opinions on the “Green Deal”
“This law is necessary to stop the extinction of species and to meet our climate goals, because ten percent of the European climate goals are based on the fact that we have healthy ecosystems that can bind CO2,” explains Green MEP Jutta Paulus. The law is also urgently needed to ensure long-term food security.
The Christian Democratic EPP parliamentary group, which also includes MPs from the CDU and CSU, sees this in particular as endangered by the new law. According to her interpretation, the renaturation law would mean that less area could be used for agriculture and forestry – and this of all times, when Ukraine is losing an important food supplier as a result of the war.
The responsible CDU MEP Christine Schneider calculates that 1.3 million hectares would be set aside in Germany alone: ”We are of the opinion that we can do biodiversity protection and nature conservation better if we do this together with the land users, with agriculture, with forestry, with fishing – and not by taking more and more areas out of use.”
EPP braces itself against Renaturation Act
Normally, pro-European factions do not reject laws outright, but try to change them in their favor. In the case of the renaturation law, EPP faction leader Manfred Weber ordered a total blockade. The project is a central part of Ursula von der Leyen’s “Green Deal”, the plan of the Commission President and Weber party friend for Europe’s sustainable restructuring.
The environmental policy expert of the Europa-CDU, Peter Liese, emphasizes: “We do not question the ‘Green Deal’ by rejecting a proposal. But we believe that this proposal is so bad that it cannot be carried out either amendments can improve.”
The EPP also categorically rejects the planned pesticide regulation. This aims to halve the use of pesticides by 2030. Since an EPP congress in Munich in May, parliamentary group leader Weber has warned against overburdening farmers. The Netherlands probably serves as a reminder: the right-wing populist peasant-bourgeois movement BBB became the strongest force there in provincial elections in March.
Does Brussels regulate too much?
Leading EPP politicians regularly complain about over-regulation in Brussels. The heads of state and government of France and Belgium are also demanding a pause on environmental regulations. However, a week ago the EU states backed the renaturation law, with the support of Christian Democratic heads of government.
In an open letter, thousands of scientists oppose the arguments of the EPP and call for a quick regulation. The plenary session of the EU Parliament is due to vote on it in two weeks. According to the Social Democrat Delara Burkhardt, the EPP leadership will no longer be able to influence the decision in their favor as it is today in the committee.
“A third of the MPs were actually exchanged because they did not want to vote with the group line. Manfred Weber does not have this opportunity in the plenum – and there there will be one last chance to protect the EU law on the restoration of nature,” explains Burkhardt.
How the chances actually stand for the supporters and opponents of the project is completely open. If there is no majority in the plenum either, Parliament would go into further negotiations with the position that there should be no renaturation law.