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The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) warmly welcomes the strong endorsement by the EU Council of Ministers today in Luxembourg for the Nature Restoration Law. This throws a lifeline to the initiative which has been subject to a negative campaign led by the European People’s Party (EEP, of which Fine Gael is a member) and which has been characterised by scare tactics and misinformation.
We particularly want to acknowledge the strong support for the Nature Restoration Law demonstrated today by the Irish Government, represented in Luxembourg by Minister Eamon Ryan and Minister of State Malcolm Noonan. Ministers’ willingness to move the law forward sends a strong signal to the European Parliament, where political games have stalled negotiations.
The Nature Restoration Law will be voted again in the Parliament’s ENVI committee next week where another rejection amendment will be tabled. However, while the passing of such an amendment will be bad news, it will not be a fatal blow to the law, which will pass to a plenary of the European Parliament, expected in the middle of July. A risk remains nevertheless, that the law will be watered down to the point of meaninglessness.
The recent debate on this law has exposed deep divisions within Ireland’s large centre-right parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which seem to have no coherent policy on the biodiversity crisis. Fine Gael MEPs, as well as Billy Kelleher of Fianna Fáil, have floundered in recent weeks in asserting that they are in favour of nature restoration while simultaneously engaging in efforts to kill off the new law entirely.
The IWT’s Campaigns Officer Pádraic Fogarty says “Today is a good day for the Nature Restoration Law however much still rests in the hands of MEPs in the coming weeks. While there seems to be deep divisions within the EPP on their wrecking ball approach to the legislation their fundamental philosophy hasn’t changed. Too many politicians, at home and in Brussels, continue to deny the terrible reality of our biodiversity and climate crisis.”
ENDS
CONTACT: Pádraic Fogarty IWT Campaigns Officer, irishwildlife@iwt.ie