The European Parliament gives its final approval to the biodiversity law in the midst of rural protests

This Tuesday, the European Parliament gave its final approval to the Nature Restoration Law, the main European legislation on biodiversity that, in the last year, has been the protagonist of a tough political struggle due to the attempts of the European People's Party ( PPE) to knock it down.

Despite a new last-minute call from the leader of the conservatives, Manfred Weber, to vote again against the text that had already been agreed with the States, and in an atmosphere especially tense due to agricultural protests throughout Europe less than a hundred days of the European elections, MEPs have decided to definitively ratify a regulation that seeks to restore by 2030 at least 20% of the EU's land and sea areas, where 81% of land and aquifer habitats are in poor condition .

“The EU has the first Nature Restoration law in its 70 years of history,” celebrated the rapporteur of the regulations, the socialist César Luena, who recalled that “the restoration of ecosystems is essential to fight against change climate, tackle the biodiversity crisis and protect food security.”

It constitutes, he stressed at a press conference, the second fundamental leg of the European Green Deal, after the commitments to reduce emissions to fight climate change: “There is no planet B and there is no plan B, only the Green Deal ”, he recalled from Strasbourg shortly after the vote, which according to Luena also gives the EU “international credibility” in its efforts to lead the global environmental fight.

Also the president of the Environment Commission of the European Parliament, the French liberal Pascal Canfin, has celebrated “excellent news for the protection of nature and the sovereignty of the continent (…) despite the

fake news

” about the legislation, which now only needs pro forma ratification by the Council of the EU - that is, by the States, because the ambassadors already approved it in November - in order to enter into force.

As expected, the result of the vote was quite close: after rejecting some amendments presented at the last minute by the ultra ECR group – where Vox meets –, finally 329 MEPs voted in favor of the LRN, over the opposition. of 275 and the abstention of another 24. A vote that has made many representatives of the left-wing and center parliamentary groups who had condemned the EPP's latest maneuver to derail the law - as they have tried - jump from their seats to celebrate the result throughout the entire process—as a “populist” and “irresponsible” action that, they stated, sought nothing more than to “play along” with the extreme right, aligned from the beginning against this regulation.

The future of the LRN had been hanging by a thread for a year, especially since the victory, at the beginning of last year, of an agricultural party in the regional elections in the Netherlands, which gave the first clue of the countryside's discontent with European policies.

From there the EPP, which until then had actively negotiated the text of the biodiversity law, proclaimed itself the defender of farmers and made a 180-degree turn until calling for the regulations to be “overturned”, something it tried repeatedly during the parliamentary votes from last spring and summer.

He did not succeed, although he did manage to significantly lower the legal text: so that it could pass the barrier of the European Parliament, where a group of liberals also voted against at the time - and also today, despite the fact that the leader of the group Renew, Valérie Hayer, had called for support this same Tuesday—, the text was significantly reduced with the inclusion, among others, of an “emergency brake” to the law in case of food emergency, as well as greater flexibility and reductions in the conditions for its fulfillment.

Once the parliamentary barrier was overcome, in November the legislative compromise text was agreed between the States – including 12 countries governed by conservatives – and the European Parliament.

Therefore, the vote now taken had to be basically protocol, since everything was negotiated.

But the EPP, which has not wanted to commit to its approval at any time, decided on Monday in Strasbourg that its group would oppose it once again in the final vote this Tuesday, despite the fact that some deputies from its own ranks announced their intention to not to follow the line set by Weber (25 of them ended up voting in favor of the law in the chamber this Tuesday, none of them Spanish, who followed the German's lead).

The Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginjus Sinkevicius, present at the vote in Strasbourg, maintained that the result of the vote is “a clear declaration that climate and nature go hand in hand.”

The European official, one of those most attacked by Weber last year – he even accused him of “campaigning for Pedro Sánchez” – has assured that this law “is not about restoring nature just for nature's sake, but to guarantee a habitable environment that guarantees the well-being of current and future generations.”

In a message to the farmers who on Monday demonstrated again, at times quite violently in Brussels against European policies, and who have made the Green Pact one of their main targets, Sinkevicius stressed that the vote in favor of the LRN "It will allow Europe's nature to recover, also to the benefit of the economy and the future of our farmers' production."

For his part, Luena has been “convinced” that the countries' restoration plans will consider “to the millimeter” the needs of the primary sector, which is why he has asked for “time” for farmers, fishermen and ranchers “to realize that this law is not a problem, it is a solution (…) when they see that the law helps, that it is good, that it solves problems, we will talk in a different way,” he confided.

MEPs ratify the toughening of environmental crimes

The European Parliament has also consolidated another key step in the defense of the environment, the fight against environmental crimes, by ratifying the agreement reached with the States to expand the list of these crimes to a total of 18, from the illegal timber trade , one of the main causes of deforestation in some parts of the world, to the illegal recycling of polluting components from ships or serious violations of legislation on chemical products. 

With a resounding vote – 499 votes in favor, 100 against and 23 abstentions – the MEPs also validate that the new regulations include the so-called “qualified crime”, such as large-scale forest fires or widespread contamination of air, water and the soil, which entails the destruction of an ecosystem and is, therefore, “comparable to ecocide.” 

The directive also toughens prison sentences - up to 10 years - and fines provided for this type of environmental crimes, considered the fourth largest criminal activity in the world and, along with drug, arms and human trafficking, one of the main sources. of income from organized crime. 

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