ENVI rejects Nature Restoration Law compromise

Photo: Björn Johansson

The EU Parliament’s Committee on the Environment (ENVI) rejected its own compromises on the European Commission’s proposed Nature Restoration Law in its final vote on the plans earlier today.

The issue will now go to a plenary vote, which will be taken in the absence of any positions from the involved Committees (ENVI, AGRI, PECH). It now falls to the rapporteur to broker last minute compromises among political groups that can be accepted in the plenary vote.

The Swedish Forest Industries Federation (SFIF) strongly recommends that Parliament takes relevant advice from the Council’s general approach to these proposals, in particular in relation to the non-deterioration requirement.

The Council’s general approach, approved on the 20th of June, included important clarifications. Besides the non-deterioration requirement, more time was granted to map the condition of habitats and develop national restoration plans, and greater flexibility was created to take into account social, economic and cultural aspects.

SFIF maintains its previously stated position of welcoming the law’s stated aim of restoring damaged ecosystems, but voicing concern that the Commission’s proposals will fail to do so due to being unnecessarily centrally planned and resulting in penalising those Member States with the strongest track records of protecting and restoring nature through active forest management.