The European Union has taken a giant step towards the protection of its natural areas. After months of very tough negotiations against the backdrop of a bitter political battle that goes beyond the regulations themselves, the European Parliament and the 81 reached a provisional political agreement on Thursday night on the Nature Restoration Law, the first major legislation on biodiversity in the history of the EU that, Despite the broad consensus on its urgency in a Europe where <>% of terrestrial habitats and aquifers are in poor condition, it has been on the verge of being shipwrecked several times by the right's repeated attempts to overthrow it.
"We have reached a very important agreement that validates the effort of Europeans and institutions to restore, to recover what generates not only life, but also economic and social services, which impacts on people's well-being and the viability of most of our activities, including, of course, food security", celebrated this Friday the third vice-president and acting Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, after the nine hours of the meeting that allowed a final text to be agreed. The minister, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU this semester, wanted to be present in the last stretch of negotiations that, from the beginning, she considered a priority and that she sought to close before the end of the Spanish mandate in December, although the final ratification process, at least in the European Parliament, It is not expected to end until the beginning of 2024, already under the Belgian presidency.
Environmental organisations have welcomed, with "relief", an agreement that allows us to be "one step closer" to a European biodiversity regulation. But they have warned of the numerous legal "loopholes" and "extreme flexibility" for states accepted in the text that, they warn, may make key legislation to restore Europe's fragile biodiversity much less efficient. And that, says Client Earth lawyer Ioannis Agapakis, "they have set a frightening precedent for the European legislative process, instead of cementing the EU at the forefront of biodiversity conservation."
This text, which ratifies the objective of restoring at least 2030% of the EU's land and sea areas by 20, will now have to be ratified by both the Council, i.e. the Member States, and the European Parliament. Normally, this is an almost protocol process. But in view of the strong political charge that has accompanied the last stretch of this regulation, no one dares to take anything for granted. Much of the focus will be on the European People's Party (EPP) which, since the beginning of the year, has made a U-turn and ended up calling for the repeal of a law it initially supported.
The first conservative signs do not allow us to let our guard down completely. Germany's Christian Democrat Christine Schneider, shadow rapporteur on the legislation for the EPP, welcomed the changes to a law that was born, she says, "ideologized". However, he warned that the EPP "will analyse the outcome of the negotiations" before the votes in the Environment Committee first, foreseeably this November, and then the plenary session for the final ratification of the regulation.
The conservative shift came after several electoral coups at the beginning of the year, especially the unexpected victory in the regional elections in the Netherlands (which holds general elections at the end of the month) of a peasant party, as well as protests and pressure from the agricultural and fishing sector. Something that made the EPP, in what is considered a nod to the far right in the face of the various elections in several states and, above all, the European elections of June 2024, suddenly call for the overthrow of a regulation that, despite numerous scientific refutations, it also accused of putting food safety at risk. The retreat by the conservatives – supported by part of the liberals – caused tough negotiations and juggling in a European Parliament that only managed to push the law through after several heart-stopping votes and after negotiating multiple amendments that significantly lowered it.
In fact, the great paradox of the Nature Restoration Law is that it has broken the tradition of Brussels: in this case, the position of the Twenty-seven was more ambitious than that of the MEPs, who among others included an "emergency brake" to the law in the event of a food emergency and sought greater relaxation and lowering of conditions.
One of the keys to the negotiations in the so-called trilogues, a three-way agreement between the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission to unify the positions of the countries and MEPs in a single text, has been, according to sources familiar with the negotiations, to agree on a final wording that was as ambitious as possible, but that included enough concessions so that especially the most opposed MEPs would be able to give it their final approval when the final approval was reached. to come to the floor for ratification.
Among the flexibilities introduced, the final text accepts that, until 2030, the restoration of Natura 2000 sites will be "prioritised", but in exchange the goal is maintained that, by that date, measures are in place to restore "at least" 30% of the habitats covered by the new law, a percentage that will increase to 60% in 2040 and 90% by mid-century. The negotiators have also managed to "return" Article 9 on the restoration of agricultural ecosystems that the European Parliament called for elimination, although some requirements have been relaxed, such as that States will only have to comply with two of the three established indicators (grassland butterfly index, organic carbon stocks in mineral soils of arable land and proportion of agricultural area with highly diverse landscape elements). And although the so-called "emergency brake" demanded by the EPP for the sake of food security is consolidated, it is subject to "very taxed" assumptions and a situation that is "very difficult to happen", so sources in the negotiations do not say they are particularly concerned about its real impact.
Despite the concessions, the negotiating parties have concluded an agreement that, according to Ribera, will guarantee a "healthy Europe, with living marine territories and spaces" in the future. "Everything substantive" has been maintained, according to sources familiar with the negotiations, who ask not to minimize a "monumental step" for the conservation of the environment.
"The EU will have a law to recover its ecosystems, which respects our international commitments and benefits all our citizens," said the rapporteur of the law in the European Parliament and one of its biggest supporters, the Spanish Socialist MEP César Luena. "After 70 years of the start of the European project, we are going to have a common policy for the restoration of nature that is very important because it not only resolves the state of ecosystems that are degraded, but also serves to fight against the effects of climate change," he said in statements after the final meeting.
"We can be proud of this historic result that imposes ambitious and achievable rules for all," the chairman of the parliamentary Environment Committee, Pascal Canfin, also congratulated himself on social media.
For his part, the Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, has expressed his hope that the text negotiated since last July will be "formally supported by legislators", so that this "flagship" of the European Green Deal will finally be a law for the Twenty-Seven.
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