First attempt to kill EU nature law fails in Parliament vote

The conservative European People’s Party on Wednesday failed to get a majority of lawmakers in the European Parliament to reject new EU rules aimed at restoring the bloc’s degraded ecosystems.

An amendment submitted by the EPP calling to reject the draft Nature Restoration Regulation outright and send the European Commission back the the drawing board failed to pass in a plenary vote. It was voted down with 324 votes against, 312 in favor and 12 abstentions.

The Commission’s proposed legislation, a highly contentious part of the Green Deal, aims to restore at least 20 percent of degraded ecosystems by 2030.

European lawmakers will now proceed to voting on amendments to the Commission’s proposal. A final vote on the entire proposal will determine whether the Parliament supports the legislation or not.

If a majority of MEPs votes to back the proposal, the Parliament can start inter-institutional negotiations with EU countries to find a compromise under the Spanish presidency of the Council.

If there’s no majority in favor, the file will effectively be stalled until after next year’s European election.