The environment committee of the European Parliament was “too divided to take a stance” on the EU Nature Restoration Law today (Thursday, June 15), according to the umbrella group for EU farm organisations and co-operatives.
Reacting to the postponement of final voting by the committee on the law until June 27, Copa Cogeca said this outcome is reflective of the divisiveness of the proposal.
In a statement following the committee meeting, Copa said: “Nothing has yet been decided, but the perfect draw between opponents and supporters of the project shows the extent to which this ill-prepared text is the main issue for MEPs.
“The vote on the amendments to the text that were held today will make it even more impractical for European farmers, foresters and fisherman if it is voted through as it stands.”
Copa said that it is continuing to call for the environment committee, and the wider parliament, to reject the law.
“Rarely has a committee vote been so frenzied that the final vote had to be postponed for a lack of time,” the group said.
It added: “While until now the environment committee had voted in favour of most of the initiatives proposed by the commission, the distance expressed today is a real signal of mistrust for a text whose impact will be considerable for the entire European primary sector and for EU rural areas.”
The main reasons Copa is seeking rejection of the law include a lack of concrete financing for on-the-ground restoration and the human resources to implement it; and the implementation of legally binding targets on agricultural and forestry ecosystems without adequate resources or an adequate assessment of the impact.
“We have said time and time again that the European Commission is overly dependent on the CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] to finance this huge transition towards restoration,” the group said.
“The CAP strategic plan’s measures are not geared towards restoration, they are geared towards biodiversity as a whole.
“The EU cannot restore and rewet thousands of hectares of agricultural peatlands or grasslands without the right tools. We need a restoration fund now, not in five years’ time, not in ten years’ time.
“Action is needed and all the farming community agree on this, but it should be properly financed,” the Copa statement added.
It also said that the impact assessment carried out on the proposed law is “deficient”, saying it “barely scrapes the surface on how much this will cost rural communities to implement [and] the loss of income from ceasing active production”.
“Latecomers to the debate on the Nature Restauration Law are pointing the finger at the European Parliament, but the responsibility lies fully with the European Commission, which did not carry out the necessary studies to quantify all the impacts which would have helped in proposing a sustainable solution and a consensus accepted by all,” according to Copa.