BREAKING: EU countries rubberstamp Nature Restoration Law after months of deadlock

5 months ago 24

A majority of EU member states gave the final green light to the Nature Restoration Law on Monday (17 June) during a Council meeting in Luxembourg, marking the last step for one of the Green Deal’s most controversial files.

A last-minute position change from Austria, announced on Sunday by Vienna’s environment minister Leonore Gewessler, paved the way for the approval.

Slovakia, which had previously publicly voiced doubts about the proposal, also backed the text during the crucial vote, allowing the law to pass with a narrow majority of 20 countries representing 66% of the EU’s population. The threshold for approval by a qualified majority at the Council is 65%.

Countries such as Italy, Sweden, and Finland had long opposed the text. Hungary dropped its support in March, just ahead of the final vote. Poland subsequently indicated that it would no longer support the proposal.

EU negotiators from the European Parliament and Council had reached a hard-fought agreement on the legislation in November.

In Parliament, the legislation faced significant opposition from the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), which raised concerns about the impact on the EU’s agricultural sector, an opposition later fuelled by this year’s farming protests.

Despite a last-minute revolt from right-wing lawmakers, the Parliament endorsed the compromise text in February, with 329 votes in favour and 275 against.

The pioneering regulation will set legally binding targets to restore 20% of the EU’s degraded land and sea ecosystems by 2030 and all ecosystems by 2050.

To achieve these objectives, EU countries must restore at least 30% of habitats covered by the law from poor to good condition by 2030—such as forests, grasslands, wetlands, rivers, and lakes—and 90% by 2050. Member states must also ensure that these areas do not deteriorate once restored.

However, the final text watered down many of the requirements for the farming sector, particularly by introducing an “emergency brake” so targets affecting agriculture can be suspended “under exceptional circumstances” that threaten food security.

The law will be enacted 20 days after being published in the EU Official Journal.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Zoran Radosavljevic]