On Thursday 1 June, Brussels’ Luxembourg Square was briefly transformed into an agricultural landscape. European farmers, together with representatives of Farmers’ Union and European agricultural representative organisation, Copa andCogeca, mobilised in front of the European Parliament to make a clear point: make sure the Nature Restoration Law is not approved, for the very clear reason that it threatens the way we produce and where we produce our food in Europe. Despite pressure and counter protest, a good number of MEPs joined and endorsed this action, showing that they too understand the serious
“Our Flemish farmers produce food in a very urbanised context. The land take from Nature Restoration in Flanders, at 33%, is much higher than the 5% average in Europe. This means that the Nature Restoration Law will undoubtedly have a bigger impact in Flanders than in our neighbouring countries,” says Boerenbond president Lode Ceyssens. “With the action we are launching today, we want to wake up the policy and make our farmers’ concerns clear in Brussels. For too long we have been sleepwalking this proposal through the co-decision process. It is time we hit the pause button, send it back to the Commission, and truly ask where they see food producers in Europe fitting into the future of nature restoration. If we want agriculture and horticulture to still fit into the European picture, this nature restoration law must be radically amended in order to be rational and realistic for the issues we already face, and not set Member States up for failure in their first targets before they even start.”
Present at the protest, Tim Cullinan, Vice-President of Copa added, “The farming community has watched with dismay and confusion with regards to how the Nature Restoration Law has developed in the European Parliament over the past months. When farmers, and forest-owners say this is too much, we speak from experience. It is us who would be first to be impacted by this law, it is us who would have to bear the cost, it is us who would lose parts if not all of our land for the restoration of peatlands. We simply ask that you listen to our farmers and do not ignore our advice.”
The European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development rejected the nature restoration opinion by a large majority, and likewise the Committee on Fisheries rejected their opinion, in an unprecedented act. Now the Committee on Environment must respect and acknowledge that those who will be implementing this law do not see it as feasible, workable, nor implementable. The European Parliament will adopt its final position by July. The European Council will also still have to take their final position on the matter. It is now crucial that MEPs do not sign a blank cheque without having the responsibility of seeing it implemented.
Artigo publicado originalmente em Copa Cogeca.
