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Today, MEPs in the European Parliament committee for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) concluded their voting on the Nature Restoration Law (NRL). The final vote was tied 44-44 which means the report was not adopted.
The ENVI committee began voting on the NRL on the 15th June and it was voted then that the law would not be rejected. This was a positive result as members of the EPP group (of which Fine Gael is a part of) had been engaged in a campaign spreading misinformation about the law and the fact that it was not outright rejected shows that this campaign did not work. Any member of the EPP group which spoke out against the official EPP stance and showed support for the NRL were swiftly substituted out of the committee so that they would not be able to vote.
Since the law was not rejected, MEPs then began voting on the proposed amendments with EPP and other conservative MEPs doing their best to weaken the law as much as possible. Members of the EPP even voted against there being a specific nature restoration fund available for farmers to make the just transition to more sustainable ways of farming. This resulted in a watered down version of the law and this was what members voted on today resulting in the tie and the report not being formally adopted.
The law will now go to plenary in July where MEPs across the entire EU parliament will have the chance to vote on it. This crucial vote will give MEPs the chance to show they want a strong and ambitious NRL, that they care about the climate and biodiversity crisis and that they want to restore nature to help ensure food security, protect jobs and protect the habitats and species we rely on.
“This piece of legislation is the most important piece of legislation for nature since the Birds and Habitats Directive 30 years ago. Over 80% of EU habitats are in bad ecological status so this shows that what we have been doing so far hasn’t been enough. We desperately need this law to tackle the mass extinction we find ourselves in. All Irish members of the EU parliament must now do what is right by their citizens and nature and make sure we get the strongest version of this law through in plenary” – Grace Carr, Marine Advocacy Officer, Irish Wildlife Trust
ENDS
CONTACT: Grace Carr IWT Marine Advocacy Officer, grace@iwt.ie