Is there a Majority for the Nature Conservation Law?
Today, the European Parliament will decide on the nature conservation law. Supporters consider it essential, while critics fear disadvantages for agriculture. The outcome of the vote is completely uncertain.
Supporters and Opponents Clash Over EU Nature Conservation Law
Yesterday, opponents and supporters of the planned EU nature conservation law faced off once again – inside and outside the European Parliament. Opponents arrived with dozens of tractors in front of the Parliament building in Strasbourg, while supporters came with Greta Thunberg.
While the Swedish climate activist appealed to the Members of Parliament to vote for a strong regulation, according to the President of the Farmers’ Association, Joachim Rukwied, the proposal leads to a dead end. The subsequent parliamentary debate showed that opinions within the plenary diverge widely. Today, the Parliament will decide on the law.
Criticism and Total Blockade
The EU Commission aims to green cities, reforest forests, and rewet moors. Brussels wants to save endangered species and landscapes with the renaturation law. By 2030, at least one-fifth of land and sea areas should be restored. This applies not only to nature conservation regions but also to cultivated areas.
Opponents of the project fear that agriculturally usable land would also be lost. According to CDU European politicians, the Commission does not take enough consideration for farmers. They also describe the draft law as poorly crafted.
Normally, the pro-European factions in the European Parliament try to modify proposals in their favor. However, regarding the renaturation law, the EPP faction, which includes the CDU and CSU members, is opting for a total blockade. They are calling on the Commission to draft a new proposal. Brussels rejects this, stating that the law would not be passed before the next European elections in June.
Central to the Green Deal
The law that the EPP is mobilizing against is a central part of Ursula von der Leyen’s Green Deal, the Commission President’s plan for Europe’s sustainable transformation. Thus, the CDU politician faces resistance from within her own ranks in an important area.
According to the Greens, the EU needs the law to stop species extinction and achieve its climate goals. After all, one-tenth of emissions reduction should be achieved through forests and soils, which absorb and store carbon. When damaged, they even release CO2 into the atmosphere.
The Commission counters critics by stating that member states should play a central role in implementing the proposed law. Thousands of scientists have rejected arguments from opponents in an open letter. Among other things, they write that the greatest risks to food security come from climate change and the loss of biodiversity.
Strategy for New Majorities?
However, the debate extends far beyond nature conservation. In the leading Environment Committee, the draft did not receive the necessary majority at the end of last month because EPP members voted against it alongside right-wing populists and extremists.
The Greens and SPD suspect a strategy by EPP faction leader Manfred Weber to organize new majorities to the right of the center after the European elections. Whether the draft for the renaturation law will receive a majority in the plenary will be revealed at noon.
The outcome of the vote is completely uncertain and depends on the number of dissenters within the EPP, liberals, and social democrats from their respective faction lines. It is also unclear how the EU institutions will proceed if the project fails in Parliament.