There were over 300 protestors and 50 tractors from 20 different European countries present, following Copa and Cogeca’s call, to clearly say, “Yes, farmers are first in line for restoring nature but no, we can’t do this with the proposal as it is presented in the plenary in Strasbourg”. Ahead of the upcoming vote on the Nature Restoration, 20 MEPs joined the flash action to express their support to farmers.
After an initial flash action organised in Brussels a month ago, Copa and Cogeca were joined by 20 national delegations protested on the fringes of the plenary parliamentary debate in Strasbourg this Tuesday morning. The stakes are high: the three committees that attempted to amend this text within the European Parliament failed to reach a satisfactory position, given the unbalanced nature of the text presented by the Commision and the lack of clearly identified funding.
The smokescreen of political communication organised by some activists and their simplistic “for or against nature restoration” narrative has completely prevented a proper debate on the substance of this proposal. The Members of the European Parliament therefore have their backs to the wall, accepting or rejecting the proposal in plenary, with too rapidly made amendments or copy-pasted from the General Approach. A few amendments will not change the fundamental problems with the text.
Adding to other Green Deal policies and a non-aligned trade policy, there’s little chance that the objectives set out in the Nature Restoration Law will be achieved as hoped. There will be no winners with this initiative, but many losers in our rural areas, starting with the smallest and most fragile economic structures. This is why for all the farmers present from Ireland to Finland today in Strasbourg, this proposal is unworkable and should therefore be returned to sender post-haste!
Artigo publicado originalmente em Copa Cogeca.
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