Frans Timmermans can breathe a sigh of relief: his nature restoration law has been saved. In an extremely narrow vote, MEPs decided on Wednesday to support the controversial law. A proposal to reject the bill fell just twelve votes short. The result is a victory for Timmermans, whose Green Deal had come under heavy pressure with a negative vote.
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The nature restoration law, which obliges member states to improve their nature reserves, has become part of a fierce political battle in recent weeks. The Christian Democratic group in particular actively campaigned against the law and demanded that Timmermans withdraw it and come up with an entirely new proposal. Dutch MEPs from the CDA and VVD, among others, are also strongly opposed to the proposal.
Criticism focused, among other things, on the impact that the proposal would have on European agriculture and thus on the food supply – although scientists debunked that argument. In the Netherlands, there is particularly great fear that the law will further exacerbate the existing problems with nitrogen and nature.
Toned
The mood in the European Parliament was unprecedentedly tense and was preceded by weeks of fierce political times in which emotions sometimes ran high. MEPs sometimes fiercely reproached each other and Timmermans.
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Now the law can still pass, although it has been weakened in quite a few parts by the European Parliament. For example, the so-called ‘deterioration ban’, a controversial passage that the Netherlands also opposed, has been considerably watered down. Instead of the obligation for member states not to allow their nature to deteriorate further, they now only have to ‘make an effort’ to do so.
Earlier, the European member states also voted in favor of the weakened law by a large majority. Not in the Netherlands: Minister Christianne van der Wal (Nature and Nitrogen, VVD) said last month that she could not support the compromise.