On Wednesday afternoon, the European People's Party announced it was withdrawing from negotiations on the EU law on nature restoration.
"The law was poorly drafted in the first place and is an attack on European agriculture, forestry and fisheries," said EPP Group Chief Negotiator Christine Schneider in a statement. "If the Commission is serious about nature restoration, it should come up with a new proposal as soon as possible," the MEP added.
The European Greens took to Twitter to criticise the conservative group's withdrawal as "irresponsible".
"Right now, we are destroying nature...Accelerating climate change is only making the situation worse," they write in a statement signed by 16 Greens/EFA MEPs. "Still some politicians claim that protecting nature will put food production at risk.
The @EPPGroup just walked out of talks on the #NatureRestorationLaw, basically giving up on protecting biodiversity - as devastating floods & wild fires threaten #FoodSecurity & farmers' livelihoods.
π IRRESPONSIBLE π Sign our statement ‡https://t.co/RE2CuYCJ6Z β Greens/EFA in the EU Parliament π (@GreensEFA) May 31, 2023
The EPP withdrawal comes a week after two committees in the European Parliament, agriculture and fisheries, voted against the key piece of legislation.
The Nature Restoration law is the centrepiece of the EU biodiversity strategy, aiming to encourage the rehabilitation of damaged habitats and ecosystems around the continent.
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Recently, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo came under fire for saying that this law and other EU environmental plans should be put on hold.
