| | | | Amid the commotion, Europe gives nature a chance |
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By Jorge Liboreiro
The Nature Restoration Law has pulled through.
The future of the draft legislation, which sets binding targets to repair the European Union’s degraded habitats, had for weeks been the subject of feverish speculation, with journalists and experts making bets on whether it would survive or be killed off right in the middle of the hemicycle.
The extreme uncertainty stemmed from an unheard-of opposition campaign launched by right-wing parties, particularly by the European People’s Party (EPP), the parliament’s largest formation. The EPP has spent the last few months attacking the Nature Restoration Law with a relentless intensity, warning it would devastate the traditional livelihoods of farmers, decrease food production, push prices up for consumers and prevent the deployment of renewable energy.
The claims, which have been widely debunked by environmental NGOs, climate scientists, the wind energy industry and big companies like Nestlé and Danone, took a surprising turn last week with a bizarre-looking tweet that said the legislation would “kick Santa out of his house” by turning the “entire city” of Rovaniemi, Finland, into a forest.
“Withdraw the Nature Restoration bill!” it said.
The EPP’s antagonistic behaviour, more akin to hate-tweeting than policy-making, was met with fierce contestation from left-wing parties, which accused the group led by Manfred Weber of cosying up to the far right and adopting a climate-sceptic stance in the run-up to the European elections, scheduled for June next year. The furious conservative backlash has been linked to the emergence of BBB, an agrarian party that has disrupted Dutch politics with an agenda that defies the European Green Deal.
This profound chasm was vividly exposed on Wednesday, when MEPs gathered in the packed halls of Strasbourg to take a vote on the Nature Restoration Law and express, once and for all, their collective opinion on the contested text.
In the end, 336 lawmakers voted in favour of the amended law and 300 against, with 13 abstentions in between.
The tally prompted loud applause from progressives, some of whom were wearing “restore nature” t-shirts, and a sigh of relief from the European Commission, which had struggled to neutralise the EPP’s no-hold-barred narrative.
“Let's talk about the content,” said a visibly happy Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s executive vice-president in charge of the Green Deal. “I offer my open hand to the EPP to find compromises that would be agreeable to them as well.”
Meanwhile, in the conservative camp, a reckoning was unravelling.
The parliament’s record showed that 21 EPP members, such as Ireland’s Frances Fitzgerald, Finland’s Sirpa Pietikäinen and Czech Republic’s Stanislav Polčák, had defied Manfred Weber’s leadership and voted in favour of the demonised law – a small-sized rebellion that this time felt colossal.
“I fully respect the individual colleagues who have their own opinion,” Weber said in a press conference. “I’m a true parliamentarian.”
The humbling was evident. Weber and his right-hand Esther de Lange spoke of a law that was now “much more workable” due to its watered-down provisions and the inclusion of an “emergency brake” that would suspend its application if food prices increase. They also confirmed that, after weeks of filibustering, the EPP would return to the negotiating table to finalise the file.
“We have fought for our convictions and we came very close,” Weber said.
Then, in what appeared to be an unintentionally ironic remark, the EPP leader decried the “highly politicised and highly polarised” debate surrounding the Nature Restoration Law. “We can only be successful on the Green Deal if we unify,” he added. |
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Amid the commotion, Europe gives nature a chance14/7/2023, 10:10