MEPs sling mud ahead of knife-edge nature restoration vote

STRASBOURG — A tense debate ahead of a key vote on a new EU biodiversity law in the European Parliament descended into a slanging match Tuesday.

A year out from the next European election, a right-wing alliance led by the Parliament’s largest grouping, the European People’s Party, is trying to kill a Green Deal nature restoration law proposed by the European Commission, warning about its impact on economic growth.

"For the next five years we have to care a lot about our industrial base ... so we have to manage the big changes needed in a way that we don’t lose economic power," said EPP leader Manfred Weber.

The vote at midday on Wednesday promises to be very tight.

"We are in the gray zone, if the vote took place right now I don’t know what the result would be," said Pascal Canfin, a French Renew MEP who chairs the environment committee and is championing a compromise that hews more closely to the position adopted by EU countries.

Outside the Parliament building, farmers’ lobbies backed by dozens of tractors protested against the law while climate activists including Greta Thunberg clamored for its adoption.

Inside the Parliament, the Socialists’ César Luena, who crafted Parliament’s position, accused the EPP of a being a "reactionary" force, while the EPP’s Christine Schneider counted that her group faced "false accusations" and insisted it still supports the Green Deal.

"The last thing we want is to have the win of the fake news and a win of far-right populism, because that’s exactly what threatens us today," Canfin told reporters.

Renew is split over the issue, leading MEP Manon Aubry of The Left to blame the grouping for the touch-and-go vote.

Stéphane Séjourné, the Renew leader, tried to downplay his grouping’s divisions, saying about 70 percent of his lawmakers back the bill. "Our group is clear, we’re in favor of the text, in favor of a text," he said.

The vote is expected to be so close that MEPs are worrying about any potential absences.

The EPP is likely to lose one vote because Dutch lawmaker Jeoren Lenaers just had a child.

Two Catalan lawmakers who support the bill, Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín, cannot travel to Strasbourg to cast their votes because two recent court rulings lifted their parliamentary immunity.

While MEPs attacked each other, Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius insisted that the Commission "remains 100 percent committed to turn this proposal into law."