The European PP accuses the Commission of "threats" and lobbying for a key law for biodiversity

The pulse for the Law for the Restoration of Nature, the latest scenario of a tough European political battle with implications beyond biodiversity, has risen several degrees of tone on Wednesday after the European People's Party (EPP) has accused the European Commission of "threatening" MEPs opposed to the regulatory proposal and of promoting a business lobby to pressure them and make them vote in favor of the regulation. Meanwhile, progressive and green MEPs have called on the president of the European executive, Ursula von der Leyen, to publicly pronounce herself in favor of a law that has her approval, but that has become the workhorse of her conservative political family against the institution she leads.

A week before a key vote in Strasbourg on the bill that seeks to repair 80% of community habitats in poor condition, with a first objective of recovering at least 20% of degraded land and waters by 2030, the tension is maximum.

Next Thursday, the Environment Committee of the European Parliament must vote on the law rejected in recent weeks in the Fisheries and Agriculture committees. It is the last step before it reaches the plenary in July to become the European Parliament's position for final negotiations with the Council. But if it is knocked down again on the 15th, it will mean the end of the legislative journey of the norm, which will return to the starting block, which would almost certainly imply that there will be no biodiversity law before the European elections in a year's time.

This would make it difficult for the EU to meet its international biodiversity commitments by 2030, warn law-geers and environmental organisations. In addition, the Commission recalls that the fact of having proposed this standard has constituted a "strong impetus to encourage other countries to also increase their action on biodiversity", so it fears that its rejection could jeopardize all the ambitious international commitments reached at the Montreal biodiversity summit last December.

The EPP, led by the German Manfred Weber, seeks to consolidate and even strengthen its position as the main political party in the European Parliament, for which it has not hesitated to bring positions closer to the extreme right, which rejects the Law to Restore Nature outright. Erected as the "defender of European farmers and rural communities", he also tries to take advantage of the wave of discontent of sectors such as the peasant before the cascade of environmental policies that emerged from Brussels in recent years and that have already caused several legislative scares in Europe.

EPP legislators have asked on Thursday the vice president of the Commission responsible for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, to "withdraw" a law to which they blame "structural" failures and a lack of impact assessments adjusted to reality. In addition, they have accused him of "threatening" several MEPs to get them to change their minds and support the legislative proposal.

"When Vice-President Frans Timmermans and his [Environment] Commissioner Virginijus] Sinkevicius realised that they might not have a majority in the committees, they called several MEPs to their office and threatened them ... a red line has been crossed," denounced the German Christian Democrat MEP Christine Schneider at a press conference in Brussels. The EPP says it has received similar complaints about the behaviour of Commissioners from at least six MEPs, including liberals from Renew.

In addition, it accuses the Commission of lobbying for its law through businessmen, which would violate its neutral position. According to Dutch MEP Esther de Lange, several parliamentarians have been contacted by a business lobby "coordinated by an organisation whose secretariat is within the [Commission's] Directorate-General for the Environment, so it seems that the Commission is funding its own lobby in favour of this proposal". This is the "European Companies and Biodiversity" platform, which brings together some 400 diverse organizations and brands, such as the European electricity industry association Eurelectric, the outdoor clothing firm Patagonia or the hunting organization FACE, committed to "inserting biodiversity and key natural considerations into their daily operations".

Aware of the political burden of environmental issues – Weber himself accused Sinkevicius of "campaigning for Pedro Sánchez" for his criticism of the proposal to regularize irrigation near Doñana – the Commission tries to keep its distance. But before the accusation of lobbying, community sources have responded that the European Executive "does not direct the daily activities and statements of members of the platform nor does it represent the opinions of the Commission."

For his part, the rapporteur of the law in the European Parliament, the socialist César Luena, has again accused the popular of making "pure theater" at the last minute to follow a "personal strategy" of Weber in his "electoral fight against Von der Leyen", in which a law to restore nature that is "good" and that has been negotiated for months with everyone has been trapped, including PPE. "We have brought our positions closer to those of the EPP and we have made a minimum law that gives the States all the capacity to design restoration plans and establish deadlines," Luena said after hearing the conservative accusations. "Rejecting a law after months of negotiation is an anti-system strategy," he lamented.

Aware that next Thursday the vote will be very tight and that there are not enough guarantees that the law will go ahead, a group of socialist, green, Left and Renew MEPs have sent a letter to Von der Leyen on Thursday asking her to "publicly" support the regulations that had her approval at the time.

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