Irish MEPs must support a strong Nature Restoration Law at a meeting of the European Parliament next month, the Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) has said.
The comments come as MEPs in the parliament’s committee for Environment, Public Health and Food (ENVI) voted today (Tuesday, June 27) to reject the legislation which has been proposed by the EU Commission.
The final vote was tied 44-44, which means that the report was not adopted.
MEPs
The IWT has accused the European People’s Party (EPP), the largest group of political parties in the European Parliament, which includes Fine Gael, of engaging in a campaign spreading misinformation about the proposed legislation.
The trust said that the EPP and other conservative MEPs did their best “to weaken the law as much as possible”.
“This resulted in a watered down version of the law and this was what members voted on today resulting in the tie and the report not being formally adopted,” IWT said.
The law will now go to a full (plenary) session of the EU parliament in July where MEPs will have the chance to vote on it.
Grace Carr, marine advocacy officer with the IWT, said this “crucial vote” will give MEPs the chance to show they want a “strong and ambitious” Nature Restoration Law and that they care about the climate and biodiversity crisis.
“This piece of legislation is the most important piece of legislation for nature since the birds and habitats directive 30 years ago.
“Over 80% of EU habitats are in bad ecological status so this shows that what we have been doing so far hasn’t been enough.
“We desperately need this law to tackle the mass extinction we find ourselves in.
“All Irish members of the EU parliament must now do what is right by their citizens and nature and make sure we get the strongest version of this law through in plenary,” she said.