EU nature restoration laws face collapse as
member states withdraw support
Brussels vote cancelled after it became clear law
would not pass final stage with majority vote
Lisa
O'Carroll in Brussels
Mon 25 Mar
2024 19.18 GMT
The EU’s
nature restoration laws appear on the verge of collapse after eight member
states, including Hungary and Italy, withdrew support for the legislation.
The laws,
which have been two years in the making and are designed to reverse decades of
damage to wildlife on land and in waterways, were supposed to be rubber-stamped
in a vote on Monday.
But instead
the vote was shelved after it became apparent the legislation would not pass
its final stage with the majority required. Sources say there was “just 1%”
between those who would support it and those who would not, either by
abstaining or voting against.
The
European environment commissioner warned that shelving the bill indefinitely
would destroy the EU’s reputation globally given it had led the way at the
Cop15 biodiversity summit in Montreal in 2022.
“We risk
going to Cop16 absolutely empty handed,” said Virginijus Sinkevičius.
He also
said it would raise “serious questions and concerns as to the consistency and
stability of the EU decision-making process”.
“It is
clear to everyone that there is this huge deadlock. And it is not going to be
easy to get out of this considering the upcoming elections,” said the Dutch
climate minister, Rob Jetten, alluding to the European parliament’s elections
in June.
The setback
is the latest and arguably biggest blow to the EU’s environmental agenda in
recent months, as policymakers decide how to respond to farmers’ protests
across the bloc. As the demonstrations continue – in advance of the June
elections – many green rules have been weakened.
On Monday
Spain’s environment minister, Teresa Ribera, urged critics of the bill to back
it, saying the EU “cannot afford” to abandon its green ambitions.
Ribera
said: “It would be enormously irresponsible to drop the entire European green
agenda. Europe cannot afford to drop the green agenda, just as it cannot afford
to let its ecosystems die or leave its system in poor condition, in a state of
danger.”
Alain
Maron, the climate transition minister of Belgium, which acts as the “honest
broker” in negotiations as holder of the rotating EU presidency, told
reporters: “We don’t know exactly what reasons certain countries have to be
against this law. It’s possible that they will change their mind and their
vote.
“This is
definitely not the end of the story. The presidency will work hard in the next
weeks to find possible ways out of this deadlock and put this file back on the
agenda for adoption,” he added.
The problem
the Belgians face is that large changes to the text would have to go back to
the European parliament whose last session before the EU elections is at the
end of April.
One
diplomat said the bill had very little chance of getting through as any
substantial changes in the text would require a return to the European
parliament for a second reading, which was almost impossible.
Hopes for
the bill faded at last week’s summit of EU leaders. Sweden, the Netherlands and
Italy were opposed but the bill still had a slim majority. Then Hungary tipped
the balance, indicating it would not support the legislation, even though
Viktor Orbán’s MEPs had supported its passage through the European parliament.
Austria, Belgium, Finland and Poland have said they will abstain.
A
representative of one member state that is not supporting the bill said on
Monday nothing would change its mind. “We can’t tell our farmers: ‘We got
everything you asked for’ in terms of concessions from Brussels one day and
reintroduce burdens for farmers the next.”
But Maron
said: “The farmers are fighting for fair income. This is their fight. They are
not fighting against nature.”
If passed,
the laws would mean work on reversing biodiversity destruction on 20% of member
states’ land and waterways would have to begin by the end of the decade. This
has been the target of fierce opposition by political parties across the bloc
who are fighting to contain the rise of the radical right.
EU leaders
have tried to assuage farmers’ concerns, announcing delays on rules for unused
land as well as supply chain support to fight exploitation by supermarkets
seeking to keep down costs for consumers.
“The
agricultural sector is a very important sector, not only in Hungary, but
everywhere in Europe,” Hungary’s state secretary for the environment, Anikó
Raisz, told Reuters on Monday.
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