Nature Restoration Law passes final vote in EU Parliament, but ‘has been totally gutted’ – Wallace
Press Release on behalf of MEP Mick Wallace: Nature Restoration Law plenary vote outcome
Following the vote on the EU Nature Restoration Regulation today, Wednesday 12 July, Mr Wallace said:
“I’m pleased with the outcome of the final vote in the sense that the regulation lives to fight another day. In that sense it is a good day for the people of the EU, for nature and for farmers. But the text passed by Parliament today has been absolutely gutted. It’s a shell of the Commission’s proposal.
We are approaching the sixth mass extinction according to scientists. The science is absolutely clear, the biggest threats to our food security and to the future of agriculture are the climate and biodiversity crises, and the nature restoration regulation is crucial to address both.
I am hopeful we can fix some of the problems with the text during negotiations with the Council but it will be an enormous task.
Seán Kelly received a lot of praise for his last minute decision not to reject the law. But people should be aware that Seán tabled a number of deeply irresponsible, dangerous amendments with his EPP colleagues that would render the law as good as useless. Lots of these amendments were carried today. He criticised EPP for ‘walking off the pitch’ during negotiations. Did he just want EPP to stay on the pitch so it could gut the regulation completely? Because that is what his amendments have done to the Parliament’s position.
The nature restoration law has survived a relentless campaign of disinformation by Fine Gael’s EPP group. Since the beginning of the mandate, Fine Gael’s EPP group has had a cosy relationship with the far right in the European Parliament, but I think it’s true to say that EPP’s strategy in relation to the nature restoration law vote was definitely a crash text for a more formal alliance with the far right”.
Mick Wallace is the LEFT group in the Parliament’s shadow rapporteur for the Nature Restoration Law. That means he is one of the lead negotiators of the regulation, one of just 7 MEPs in the European Parliament responsible for negotiating the Parliament’s mandate before interinstitutional negotiations with the Council.