The proposal for a Law for the Restoration of Nature (LRN) is not only stirring the corridors of the European Parliament with the efforts of the European People’s Party (EPP) to knock it down. Member States also have to approve their common position on this key regulation of the European Green Pact. And although a more than enough majority is shaping up for the regulation to go ahead in the Council of Environment Ministers next Tuesday, the Swedish presidency in office could be maneuvering to delay the vote. Given this, Spain, Germany, France and Luxembourg have written to the Swedish Minister for the Environment, Romina Pourmokhtari, warning her of the “devastating signal” that a postponement would cause in view of the anger in the European Parliament.
“Most of the Member States have repeatedly declared their intention to achieve a common position in this Council and they would not want to jeopardize well-advanced negotiations,” they write to Pourmokhtari in a letter that EL PAÍS has been able to see from the ministers of the branch of Spain, María Teresa Ribera; Germany, Steffi Lemke; Luxembourg, Joëlle Welfring, and her French counterpart, Christophe Béchu.
The ministers say they are “deeply concerned” about the possibility that Sweden, one of the countries most reluctant to environmental legislation, will remove the matter from the agenda of the meeting in Luxembourg. Because delaying the negotiations would entail an even more serious danger, they warn: “Causing additional doubts about a legislative proposal that is an essential part of the EU Green Deal would be a devastating sign,” they warn in the letter, dated this week in Berlin. Especially “in view of the ambiguous development of the dossier in the European Parliament”, where this very Thursday a first attempt by the PPE to knock down the regulations was stopped, but it has not yet been approved even in the Environment Committee.
Diplomatic sources assure that there is a sufficient majority to carry out the common position next week —the text by the States will have to be negotiated with the one that comes out of the Eurochamber, if it is finally approved, in future negotiations with the European Commission to agree on a final bill—of the LRN. Apart from Stockholm, only Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Austria and the Netherlands remain opposed, according to the sources. Last week, Belgium, another of the reticent States, opened up to changing its position after the latest negotiating proposal from the Swedish presidency, which is presented as a “compromise text” that “maintains the balance between maintaining ambitious goals for restoration of nature and provide flexibility to Member States for the implementation of the regulation”.
The Twenty-seven, insist the four ministers, are also very “aware” of the message that failing to agree on a common position with regard to international partners would imply. “Especially in view of the recent achievements and commitments of the EU under the Convention on Biological Diversity,” they add.
The legislative proposal plans to repair 20% of the land and sea surface of the EU by 2030 and all the ecosystems that need to be restored by 2050. It is considered a key element of the great European green transition project and a pioneering measure in the matter of biodiversity. In addition, it will help the EU to meet the international commitments agreed at the Kunming/Montreal COP15 in December 2022, in particular on ecosystem restoration.
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One year after the European elections and with a calendar of key national elections in the EU, the Law for the Restoration of Nature (LRN) has become a throwing weapon in the political pulses of Brussels. Especially for the PPE, which in an attempt to win the dissatisfied vote of farmers and ranchers, and to wink more to the ultra-right, has proposed knocking down a law that it claims will affect the agricultural sector and food safety, despite denials from the scientific community and even from large corporations that have allied to defend the law attacked on various fronts.
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