2023-06-20 15:30:22
20/06/2023
Act. a las 17:07
CEST
The European People’s Party allies with the extreme right in its rejection of the text
The European Parliament must make the final decision, with a very tight majority
The countries of the European Union reached this Tuesday a agreement on the controversial Nature Restoration Lawwhich transfers the pressure to the European Parliament, where the European People’s Party (PPE) has vetoed the initiative.
“There is a qualified majority…). Today we have taken an important step in favor of nature,” said Swedish Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtar, whose country currently holds the council’s rotating presidency.
The Swedish minister had pointed out in her initial speech that “climate change and the biodiversity crisis are intertwined and the instruments to respond to these crises have to be coherent and complementary.”
The Nature Restoration Act is an iconic dossier of the Green Deal, the EU’s roadmap to develop a decarbonised and climate-neutral economy by mid-centurywhich has been politically poisoned after the EPP chaired by Manfred Weber has asked the European Commission to withdraw the text.
Contaminant dump | wikimedia
Specific, The initiative seeks to restore 20% of damaged terrestrial and marine ecosystems by 2030 and all of them by 2050.
The Council’s position went ahead despite the rejection of Poland, Sweden, Finland, or Italy, who changed their minds at the last moment, with doubts from Belgium or the Netherlands and with the support of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Germany, France, Portugal, Cyprus, Romania, Malta, Greece, Denmark or Spain.
“It is not enough to protect, you have to restore what is damaged”
“It is not enough to protect 30% of terrestrial and marine spaces by 2030 -as required by the agreement at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15)-, but we must also restore particularly damaged ecosystems“said the Spanish Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, in the debate.
The third vice-president of Spain, a country that as the presidency of the Council of the EU from July will lead the future negotiation with the European Parliament with the aim of finalizing the regulations “before the end of the year”, pointed out that the agreement is “below” what Madrid would have wanted “and, nevertheless, it is a very significant step.”
The pact was possible thanks to the fact that the Swedish presidency added to the draft various relaxations and clarifications to offer guarantees to areas with high population densityoutermost regions, agricultural or defense areas, rehumidification criteria or renewable energies.
“The planning, construction and operation of plants from renewable sources, their connection to the grid and the grid itself and storage have an overriding public interest. Member States can exempt these projects from demonstrating that there are less harmful solutions in certain circumstances “Pourmokhtar stressed.
Dead fish in the Mar Menor | efe
The text also includes a paragraph on financing that stipulates that the Commission will have to review the regulation in 2026 and propose measures if there are financial gaps.
Protect saves money
“This proposal saves us a lot of money. For every euro invested we have a return of at least eight euros in benefits offered by healthy ecosystems. So the most expensive thing we can do is not act,” said Environment Commissioner Virginius Sinkevicius.
The commissioner assured that he is confident that the law can be processed before the end of the year thanks to the “great support” of Spainwho will assume the presidency in the second half of this year.
Virginijus Sinkevicius, EC Environment Commissioner | Agencies
The vice president of the European Commission for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, had initially asked thatDon’t turn climate policies into “culture wars” with a “tribal opposition” where “facts no longer matter”.
“It is key to improve the resilience and productivity of the land, to guarantee our food security. Contrary to what some say, this is not going to pose a problem for food security. If we don’t help nature to restore itself, we will have a problem“He stated in the debate with the ministers.
To the European Parliament on the 27th
With the agreement in the Council, The pressure now passes to the European Parliament, where the Environment Committee will continue to vote on the negotiating mandate of the Eurochamber on June 27which will have to be approved by the plenary in July.
In the first part of this marathon parliamentary process, the motion presented by the European People’s Party (EPP) to withdraw the text was voted on, a motion that was rejected by one vote.
EPP spokesman Manfred Weber argues that by rejecting it he defends farmers and has brought the popular Europeans closer to the theses of the extreme right, putting pressure on his MEPs and the governments of his political family.
In this way, he tries to overthrow a symbolic law from the green agenda of the European Commission chaired by Ursula Von der Leyer, who like him is German and a Christian Democrat but also his political rival, since Weber applied to lead the community Executive in 2019 and the position went to her.
After the vote in the Council, the popular MEP Anne Sander commented on social networks that “before shouting victory, the ‘partisans’ of the text they should at least become aware of the weak majority“achieved in the Council.
At the opposite pole, the president of the Environment commission, the liberal Pascal Canfin, highlighted that six out of nine PPE governments supported the text.
Once the Parliament adopts its decision, it will be able to negotiate with the Council and the Commission the definitive version of the normative piece.
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