Agriculture Committee did not give in to the blackmail of the Commission and decided to reject the proposal on nature restoration

Copa and Cogeca welcome a courageous and judicious decision of the European Parliaments Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development to reject the Nature Restoration Law proposal today by a large majority. With the development of the Nature Restoration Law proposal in the committees of the European Parliament, we have watched with dismay as the proposal overall has moved further and further away from rationality and realities on the ground.

This failure cannot be attributed to the members of the Committee of Agriculture and Rural Development, but it is the clear consequence of two problems. The first of these is that the initial proposal from the European Commission from the beginning was not based in reality with regards to its approach regarding non-deterioration, non-fulfilment criteria, adequate and designated financing, and targets regarding the removal of essential productive agricultural and forestry lands from active use.

The second issue was that the division of competences on this file were unfortunately not equally distributed, and as such the Committee of Agriculture and Rural Development did not have a full competence on the articles most relevant to the work of its members, these being Article 9 and Article 10, on agri-ecosystems and on forest ecosystems.

We as the representatives of the European farmers’ and European Agri-cooperatives cannot accept a proposal from the European Parliament on this text unless there are extreme changes made to the proposal. As a result, we thank the Committee of Agriculture and Rural Development for continuing to respect and represent the farming community, and their role in our society, which has not been sufficiently acknowledged in the formation of the overall report.

Going forward, the Committee on Environment must consider the messages being sent by the agriculture committee. A good Nature Restoration Law cannot be designed without the clear commitment of farmers. Instead of threats and backdoor deals, the European Commission would be better placed to go back go to the drawing board, and finally be realistic and rational.

Artigo publicado originalmente em Copa Cogeca.