Right wing takes yet another stab at killing EU nature law

8 months ago 7

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If it feels like déjà-vu, that’s because it is.

After two failed attempts last spring and summer, right-wing groups in the European Parliament are once again trying to kill the EU’s nature restoration law — a bill meant to rehab degraded landscapes that has been dragged into the swelling tide of anger targeting EU climate policies.

The legislation is set for a final vote in Parliament on Tuesday, usually a rubber-stamping exercise as negotiators from the three major EU institutions — including the Parliament — have already hammered out a compromise.

But this time, several Parliament groups on the right are plotting to abolish the measure in its final stages, knowing a rejection now would effectively bury the bill ahead of the EU elections in June — where right-wing groups are set to make major gains.

The right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists and the far-right Identity and Democracy will get a vote Tuesday on their amendment calling to reject the legislation. While that amendment is expected to fail, the center-right European People’s Party, Parliament’s largest group, may decide to vote down the compromise reached on the legislation, according to one person familiar with the EPP’s internal discussions granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.

The EPP was one of the main drivers behind last year’s unsuccessful efforts to kill the nature restoration law but remains divided over the legislation.

A last-minute implosion for the bill would deal a withering blow to Ursula von der Leyen’s Green Deal just as she campaigns for a second term atop the EU executive. But lawmakers are also under mounting pressure to water down environmental legislation affecting farmers ahead of June’s EU elections.

On Friday, the EU’s powerful farmers lobby Copa-Cogeca implored MEPs to reject the nature restoration bill, according to an email seen by POLITICO. And back in Brussels on Monday, several hundred tractors blocked the EU quarter, the latest in a series of protests that have sprawled across Europe and show little sign of slowing.

11th-hour plots

The nature law sets goals for the restoration of degraded natural areas by 2030. Currently, some 80 percent of the EU’s habitats are in poor conservation status. But farmers and right-wing groups have attacked the legislation as being too burdensome on the agricultural sector.

Previously, the legislation passed through the Parliament with slim majorities. In July, the Parliament narrowly avoided sinking the bill after several Irish EPP members broke ranks to back it, paving the way for negotiations with EU countries and the European Commission.

The deal that came out of those negotiations passed through the Parliament’s environment committee. But within the EPP, the vote was tight: Eight members voted in favor, with 12 against and two abstentions. The centrist Renew group had a similar split — eight said “yes,” two said “no” and two abstained.

The divisions within these two key political groups mean the outcome of Tuesday’s vote is still highly uncertain.

Dutch MEP Mohammed Chahim, who leads Green Deal work for the center-left Socialists & Democrats, downplayed the threat, saying last week that he expects Parliament to support the final bill.

Negotiators last year “worked hard” on the agreement and “accommodated” the demands of right-wing groups, meaning there is “no reason to oppose,” he said.

But he also acknowledged that “too many” political agreements recently have been blocked at the last minute either in the Council of the EU, which represents EU capitals, or the Parliament, undermining weeks of fraught negotiations.

“If people do what they promised and what we’ve agreed upon while we were negotiating in good faith … then there should be a majority,” Chahim said. “If not, then probably it’s very complicated to have serious agreements with political groups now before the elections.”

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