The European Union’s flagship nature restoration law is in peril after the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), of which Fine Gael is a member, led an effort to block it at committee stage.
MEPs in the European Parliament’s environment committee split evenly with 44 in favour and 44 against in a vote on Tuesday, denying the law a majority. It will nevertheless go forward to a vote of all 705 MEPs in the parliament’s next plenary session, scheduled for July 11th.
Work will now begin on finding a compromise on the law that can gain a sufficient majority across the parliament and overcome the determined opposition of the EPP together with hard-right groups to it.
The law is intended to restore ecosystems to a state of health in Europe in order to reverse a collapse in wildlife and to make the environment more resilient to climate change. It is a key plank of the EU’s green deal legislation.
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With European elections approaching next year, the EPP has taken up the cause of wary farming groups who are concerned about the impact of the law on rural areas. There has been strong pushback by scientists, climate change activists and some large corporations against claims that the law would imperil food security.
Compromise position
An attempt to kill the legislation outright failed in a committee vote last month, and EU national governments have since agreed a compromise position together on how to pass the law.
Irish MEPs Grace O’Sullivan and Mick Wallace, who both sit on the environment committee, voted in favour of the law.
Opposition to the law was personally led by the EPP’s leader in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, and some MEPs from his political group were replaced with substitutes to ensure a uniform vote against the law at the environment committee.
Members of right-wing political groups and some MEPs from Fianna Fáil’s Renew grouping also voted against the law, though no Irish MEPs from those parties were on the committee.
It was supported by the Left group, the centre-left Socialists and Democrats and the Greens together with most Renew MEPs.
‘Science absolutely clear’
Mr Wallace, a Left Independent MEP, accused the EPP of spreading “blatant disinformation” about the law. He said “a lot of work” lay ahead to ensure the parliament as a whole votes in favour of the law in the coming plenary vote.
“We are approaching the sixth mass extinction according to scientists, so it cannot be overstated how important this piece of legislation is,” he said. “The science is absolutely clear, the biggest threats to our food security and to the future of agriculture are the climate and biodiversity crises, and the nature restoration regulation is crucial to address both.”
[ The Irish Times view on the EU nature restoration law: a plan worth supportingOpens in new window ]
Ms O’Sullivan, a Green Party MEP, said the law still could be passed when it comes to the plenary session vote next month.
“There is still an opportunity. I believe there is a genuine interest in supporting nature,” she said following Tuesday’s committee vote.
‘Business as usual’
She told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne the vote was a sign that it was “business as usual” for some when it came to allowing the destruction of nature. There had been a lot of misinformation on the issue, she said, and she “lay the blame” at the door of the EPP “at large” for this.
A number of MEPs had indicated to her that they felt the EPP should not have walked away from negotiations, which was why she believed the law still stood a chance of being passed at the plenary session.
Ms O’Sullivan said the EPP was stuck in the short term and “they will fail humanity if they keep pushing in this direction”.
