It is the first comprehensive standard to recover spaces degraded by human action
Reduction of pesticides, expansion of protected areas or plantation of forests, among the planned actions
First test passed for a decisive law. The Environment Committee of the European Parliament endorsed this Thursday keep the text of the law Restoration of Nature, so the text has overcome its first obstacle to reach the next plenary session, although the vote for its approval has been postponed until June 27.
Among the proposals of the law is the expansion of the network of protected areas beyond the Nature Network and it will force countries to restore 20% of ecosystems in 2030, in addition to drastically reducing pesticides, among many other measures.
The MEPs have thus prevented the proposal to reject the text from going ahead, with a tight vote of 44 votes in favor compared to 44 against, which according to the regulation means “rejection”. In other words, a refusal to be rejected, so that the members of Parliament have been able to continue voting on the more than 300 partial amendments presented to the text that is expected to come out of the European Parliament. Although they had to interrupt the vote “due to lack of time”, the pending votes will be resumed in two weeks.
The text is expected to be voted on in plenary session of the European Parliament next July, after in May the Agriculture and Fisheries committees of the European Parliament show their rejection of the Nature Restoration Lawwhich was proposed by the European Commission in June 2022, albeit symbolically, since they could not stop it because the only competent parliamentary commission is the Environment.
Specifically, the proposal was rejected by 30 votes in favor and 16 against in the Agriculture committee, and by 15 votes in favor to 13 against in the Fisheries committee, both without abstentions.
Objectives and binding obligations
The proposal aims to help restore European habitats, 80% of which are in poor condition, and sets, to achieve this, specific legally binding objectives and obligations for nature restoration in each of the listed ecosystems, from forest and farmland to marine, freshwater and urban ecosystems. More than 70% of the soils are in “unsanitary conditions”, which produces a “loss of agricultural productivity worth 1,250 million a year”.
The proposed measures cover at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050, in addition to a 50% reduction in the use of chemical pesticides across the EU by 2030.
restore the destroyed
“The Nature Restoration Law was first presented by the European Commission in June 2022, following the objectives of the European Green Deal and the biodiversity strategy.
The legislation, referred to as the “first comprehensive continental law of its kind”, aims to restore habitats and species that have been degraded by human activity and climate change.
According to the Commission, 81% of European habitats are in poor condition, with peat bogs, grasslands and dunes being the most affected. The law sets legally binding targets on seven specific topicsfrom pollinating insects to marine ecosystems, which together must cover at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea surfaces by 2030.
The target was later raised to 30% to align the bloc with the historic agreement reached in December at the end of the COP15 in Montreal.
According to the plan, Member States will be asked to draw up a national restoration plan in which the projects and initiatives that they wish to carry out to fulfill the general objective are exposed.
Possible actions include tree planting, beekeeping, re-wetting of drained peat bogs and expansion of green spaces in urban areas.
Criticism of the agrarian sector and the European right
Upon its introduction, the Nature Restoration Law was well received by environmental organisations, which welcomed the legally binding objectives and its broad scope, but provoked a major reaction from farmers, fishermen and foresters, who saw in the law a direct threat to their livelihoods and their traditional way of working.
The European People’s Party (EPP) drew on this reaction to launch its opposition to the text, an opposition that critics say is heavily influenced by the upcoming European elections and the rapid rise of the BBB, the agrarian populist party that has disturbed Dutch politics.
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