The future of the EU’s flagship environment laws are again hanging by a thread with a cliffhanger vote, flared tempers and accusations of lies, fake news and manipulation of voting in the European parliament.
Emotions were running high after voting on the European parliament committee steering through the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) ended in a dead heat on Tuesday, with 44 votes in favour and 44 against. It can now progress to a vote of the full parliament in a plenary session in July.
The centre-right European People’s party (EPP) is calling for a delay until a “solid impact assessment” on the consequences for food production and biodiversity in farming.
In tense scenes at a press conference shortly after the vote, the chair of the environment committee, Pascal Canfin, accused the EPP of “clear manipulation”, claiming it had “substituted” one-third of its 22 members on the committee to ensure the NRL hit the buffers.
MEP Cesar Luena, rapporteur of the committee, said: “A lot of lies have been told about this proposal. There have been lies and myths spread about”.
He accused the right of using arguments over the environment and migrants for their political convenience, and said young people were watching on in disbelief as the EU pulled together to fight Russia in Ukraine but was “not able to drive through a law on nature and diversity” in the face of a mounting climate emergency.
The law’s fate was sealed after the EPP, the centre-right political grouping across the EU, decided to withdraw from negotiations earlier this year, claiming it would reduce food production and hinder hydroelectric and hydrogen green energy development.
Peter Liese, the German MEP and environment spokesperson for the EPP, launched a scathing attack on Canfin after the vote.
“The chair has always to defend the vote whether he likes it or not. But Pascal Canfin is the worst and most partisan chair of the Envi (environment committee) I have ever experienced and I am here since 1994,” he said.
He dismissed claims that the EPP was going against one of the flagship Green Deal policies of the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, saying the European parliament had already adopted 27 pieces of legislation on the environment, with 13 “more to come”.
The EPP has been pitching itself as the voice of farmers’ across Europe, arguing the NRL has failed to listen to their concerns over the specifics of the new rules.
It has been careful not to criticise Von der Leyen, who has said little on the dispute despite the NRL being a pillar of her Green Deal plans for Europe.
Canfin is confident the law will pass if they can negotiate a truce before the July plenary but the EPP would rather it be dropped altogether.
It has renewed its call on the European Commission vice-president, Frans Timmermans, to withdraw the legislation and find a compromise way forward.
Voting on 2,500 compromises had begun two weeks ago in Strasbourg, France but had timed out, forcing extra voting on Tuesday.
