European Union passes legislation to protect nature – 07/12/2023 – World

The European Parliament approved this Wednesday (12) a robust plan to protect the environment and combat the climate crisis. The project is part of the so-called European Green Deal, which seeks to establish the most ambitious biodiversity target in the world and make the bloc a global reference.

The plan establishes mandatory targets for the preservation of species. It also foresees the rehabilitation of at least 20% of degraded terrestrial and marine ecosystems in the EU (European Union) by 2030.

The project was approved with 336 votes in favor, 300 against and 13 abstentions. The close vote in Strasbourg, France, exposed divisions in the bloc after months of debates and political campaigning. Now, EU countries must negotiate the final text – lawmakers hope to reach an agreement before the European Parliament election, scheduled for June 2024.

The European People’s Party, the largest group in the European Parliament, led a campaign to veto the plan, claiming that passing the text would harm farmers and jeopardize food security.

“Restoring nature must not mean the death of all economic, industrial, forestry and agricultural production in Europe,” said French Conservative MP Anne Sander, who is part of the group. “We can reduce our emissions, but our food will have to be imported from all corners of the world, where production standards are very far from ours,” she added.

Sander also criticized an excerpt of the text that determines the reservation of 10% of agricultural land for “various landscape elements”, something that, according to her, puts the bloc’s food security at risk. A similar argument was used by Copa-Cogeca, an influential association representing the protectionist interests of European rural producers and which expressed opposition to the new law.

Centrist Pascal Canfin, from France, countered the criticism by arguing that reserving 10% of the land for diverse landscape elements can be achieved by planting fruit trees or crop rotation. He stated that the measure could contribute to land productivity, generating less soil erosion and more pollination, in addition to preserving birds that feed on parasites.

With more than 80% of Europe’s natural environments already degraded, approving the plan is the least the European bloc could have done, said leftist Manon Aubry from France. Hundreds of environmental activists led by Greta Thunberg also spoke out in favor of the project.

Differences in the environmental area stand in the way of formalizing the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has already promised to conclude the agreement in 2023, but said that the current terms are impossible to be accepted, advocating a renegotiation.

The main impasse is an annex to the text, called a “side letter”, proposed by the Europeans at the beginning of this year, which would make some previously voluntary environmental commitments mandatory.

While Europe wants to ensure that the export of commodities with environmental problems is seen as a sanctionable violation, the Brazilian government considers the conditions too strict and the tone of criticism has been rising. “It is not possible for there to be an additional letter threatening a strategic partner,” said the PT in France last month. Together, Mercosur and the EU account for around 25% of world GDP, covering a population of 750 million people.