Editorials

The Irish Times view on the EU Nature Restoration Law: essential that final provisions are strong enough

Supporters of the proposal need to do even more work to persuade farmers that they will be key beneficiaries

Members of the European Parliament react as they take part in a voting session on the EU Nature Restoration Law during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, on Wednesday. The European Parliament narrowly backed the key biodiversity bill aimed at rewilding EU land and water habitats, (Photo by Frederick Florin / AFP)

Thu Jul 13 2023 - 20:30

The passage of the proposed Nature Restoration Law through the European Parliament on Wednesday, by a narrow margin and heavily amended, is cause for only muted celebration. This limited victory keeps the European Green Deal on life support, but the plug could be pulled by the rise of the far right and its growing influence on conservative parties.

After an uncontentious and optimistic launch by the EU Commission last year, the law has attracted increasingly acrimonious responses, including from some in Ireland. Yet more than a million citizens, thousands of scientists, and many businesses have campaigned for a strong version of the law as the minimum necessary to mitigate the climate and biodiversity crises.

They were opposed by agri-business lobbies, with unfounded claims that the law would make farming impossible, threaten food security, and even destroy traditional villages. This played to deep fears in farming communities, long frustrated by the EU’s failure to engage with them effectively on environmental issues. These claims were chorused by the European Peoples’ Party group in the parliament, under pressure from new populist movements.

Fine Gael, an EPP member, deserves credit for criticising the group’s more extreme statements, and for voting for the law against EPP wishes, as did all 13 Irish MEPs, a key bloc in such a tight vote. Nevertheless, it is worrying that Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin have eagerly endorsed amendments that strip out the law’s most significant provisions.

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These amendments encompass deleting an essential article on the restoration of agricultural ecosystems, including drained peatlands; delaying implementation of the law pending further reports on food security impacts; and deleting targets on marine habitats.

Unprecedented heatwaves are scorching southern Europe. Floods submerged streets in the Spanish city of Zaragoza last week. “Absolute drought” is keeping Irish farmers –and Uisce Éireann bosses – awake at night. One would think that the case for continuing business as usual in our landscapes would no longer be tenable.

The law’s critics express concern for future farming generations, and for “traditional” farming ways of life. But there will be no good future for anyone on the land if we keeping driving down a road where all the signs shout “Stop”. There is nothing traditional about ever more intensified agriculture, which is pushing our natural systems straight towards collapse.

It is vital that the final version of this law, to be negotiated between the EU parliament, council and commission, contains provisions adequate to the crises we face. Meanwhile, its advocates need to do even more work to persuade farmers that they will be key beneficiaries.

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