The European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development has voted to reject the proposed Nature Restoration Law.
The draft law proposed by members of the parliament’s environmental and ‘green’ aligned MEPs has received a significant backlash from MEPs that are concerned over what it would mean for the farming community around the EU and in Ireland.
This proposal is more stringent than the draft law proposed by the European Commission.
The agriculture committee voted against the proposal today (Tuesday, May 23) by 30 votes to 16.
One Irish member of the committee, Colm Markey, confirmed that he was among the 30 that voted against.
This vote today is the first of a set of key votes across a number of committees before the parliament as a whole adopts its position on the controversial legislation.
Markey said that the result of today’s vote “sends a clear message” to the commission.
“A large majority of MEPs on the agriculture committee have decided to say enough is enough and that it’s time for the European Commission to go back to the drawing board on the proposed Nature Restoration Law.”
The Fine Gael MEP said: “We all accept that there’s a biodiversity crisis but change is about bringing people with you and those most affected by these proposals have been left out of the conversation.
“The commission made a fundamental mistake by not explaining, not engaging, and not empowering, and we have ended up with an unworkable policy and a polarised debate, which is not going to achieve anything,” he added.
Yesterday (Monday, May 22), the committee put questions on the proposed law to Frans Timmermans, the executive vice-president of the commission with responsibility for the European Green Deal.
Markey commented: “[Timmermans] decided to show up at the last minute calling for engagement while ruling out any reworking of the proposal. Time and time again, the commission talks at, rather than talks with, those affected, and farmers have had enough of the lectures.
“The vice-president’s approach is to pit the environment against food production and the result is deep division, something that is all too evident in his home country of the Netherlands.
“We have to work together to get real change in agriculture and enable biodiversity to flourish in an active productive model,” the Irish Midlands North-West MEP said.
The result of today’s vote was also welcomed by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).
The association said that the vote “illustrates the problem with the proposal”, calling on the commission to take on board the concerns raised before it moves ahead with any new legislation.
“Farmers recognise the role they can play in restoring nature and are already carrying out measures to do this. However, the lack of clarity on the potential impact of the proposed regulation on farmland and production is very worrying,” IFA environment chairperson Paul O’Brien said.
“It is vital that a full impact assessment is undertaken to quantify the area of farmland that will be affected to ensure the proposed legislation targets are realistic and fair and are not detrimental to the continuation of farming,” he added.