July 13, 2023
- The EU must have restoration measures in place by 2030 covering at least 20% of its land and sea areas, say MEPs.
The European Parliament, in a historic decision, adopted yesterday the EU Commission’s law proposal for nature restoration with 336 votes in favour, 300 against and 13 abstentions. A vote to reject the Commission’s proposal did not pass.
MEPs support the Commission’s proposal to put restoration measures in place by 2030 covering at least 20% of all land and sea areas in the EU.
The vote followed strong public mobilisation to defend the law and the integrity of the EU Green Deal and cut through the fake news, with over a million signatures and messages from citizens, repeated calls from 6,000 scientists, 100+ businesses, and civil society from across numerous sectors to support the Nature Restoration Law.
This win, however, came at a very high cost. To reach a compromise, MEPs sacrificed many critical obligations and targets, ending up with a position substantially weaker than the original Commission proposal [1]. This flies in the face of the urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises.1Weber fails to derail EU Green Deal, but Parliament agrees to a weakened Nature Restoration Law
Over 80% of European habitats are in poor shape. The Commission proposed on 22 June 2022 a regulation on nature restoration to contribute to the long-term recovery of damaged nature across the EU’s land and sea areas and to achieve EU climate and biodiversity objectives. According to the Commission, the new law would bring significant economic benefits, as every euro invested would result in at least 8 euro in benefits.
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