The European Union has passed a landmark law to protect nature after a heated vote, ending a months-long deadlock between member states over fierce protests by farmers.
But Austria’s green climate minister changed his mind at the last minute and his vote was seen as saving the proposal, sparking outrage in Vienna where Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s party announced it would have the power to bring criminal charges over her alleged abuse. .
“Today’s decision is a victory for nature,” Leonore Gewessler wrote on X after Monday’s vote. “My conscience tells me without a doubt [that] When the health and well-being of future generations are at stake, courageous decisions need to be made.
With divisions at the heart of Austria’s coalition government so stark, Nehammer wrote to the Belgian EU Council presidency ahead of the vote, urging it to ignore the minister’s support and arguing she had no right to take her position. In a separate letter, Gewesler wrote that the chancellor’s accusations were “incorrect.”
The Nature Recovery Act, which has proven to be the most controversial pillar of the European Green Deal and nearly failed at the final hurdle, sets a target of restoring at least 20% of EU land and sea by the end of the decade.
Lawmakers and governments watered down the proposal in the months leading up to the European elections, with far-right parties gaining seats and the Greens losing them. But despite the concessions, supporters barely won enough member states to vote in Luxembourg on Monday.
“Today is an important day for Europe because we move from merely protecting and preserving nature to actively restoring it,” said César Luena, a center-left Spanish MEP who led negotiations on the law in the European Parliament. explain.
The fraught proposal was nearly defeated in the European Parliament last year and was pushed to the brink of collapse in March when Hungary unexpectedly withdrew its support. Ireland then took the lead in rallying support from other countries, urging ministers to avoid backtracking on the compromises that had been reached.
Until the last moment, it was unclear whether the law’s backers had collected enough votes to reach a qualified majority of 55% of member states representing at least 65% of the EU’s population.
Slovakia and Austria reversed their stance, clearing the hurdle by a margin of 1.07 percentage points, and environment ministers voted to pass the law with a slim majority.
Pieter de Pous, an analyst at climate think tank E3G, said: “Nowhere else in the world, with so little natural environment left, is this law more needed and almost non-existent.”
Austria’s support was key to turning the situation around. Gwesler has been an outspoken advocate for nature restoration laws, despite strong opposition from coalition partners. But until last month, her hands were tied by a unanimous lockdown in Austria’s federal states, which opposed the law.
That resistance appeared to collapse in recent weeks as two states, Vienna and Carinthia, announced they were satisfied with a compromise on the law and withdrew their objections without formally breaking the blockade.
Gwesler, who appeared to be in a legal gray area following the vote, announced on Sunday that she would support the law after seeking legal advice. “My conscience cannot accept it if we give up this opportunity without trying everything,” she said.
The public dispute has escalated to the highest levels of Austrian politics and threatens to split the coalition government of the Greens, which controls the environment ministry, and Nehammer’s center-right Austrian vice president, who controls the agriculture ministry.
ÖVP Secretary General Christian Stocker said on Monday that the party would file criminal charges against Gwesler for abusing his power. “The ends do not justify the means: Leonore Gwesler puts herself above the constitution because she cannot reconcile her green ideology with acting within the law.”
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At final count, 20 countries voted in favor of the Nature Recovery Act. Finland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden voted against the bill, while Belgium abstained. They criticized the cost of the proposal and said it would impose too much of an administrative burden on them.
Nature is dying faster than humans can observe, with 81% of European habitats in poor condition, according to the European Environment Agency. The EU lobbied other countries to commit to more ambitious targets to protect nature at the 2022 Montreal Biodiversity Summit, but its leaders have since reneged on national and European commitments.
“The EU needs to do its part to tackle the global biodiversity crisis,” Danish Environment Minister Magnus Hornik said in a debate ahead of Monday’s vote. “Our citizens expect us to act decisively and without further delay.”
The law contains provisions to reverse the decline in the numbers of pollinators such as bees by 2030.
Copa and Cogeca, the EU’s largest agricultural lobby groups, criticized the narrow majority of ministers who voted in favor of the law, calling it a “flawed proposal” that would trigger legal battles in regional, national and European courts.
The spokesperson said: “Political rhetoric aside, the lack of clear and consistent funding for ecosystem restoration across the EU remains unanswered – which goes some way to explaining the huge embarrassment and haste surrounding this law.
Activists celebrated the vote as essentially a “historic” victory for Europe but criticized “continued attacks” that undermined the measures.
“Despite the weakening of the law, this agreement offers a glimmer of hope for Europe’s nature, future generations and the livelihoods of rural communities,” Greenpeace biodiversity campaigner Špela Bandelj Ruiz said.
A coalition of environmental groups, led by WWF Europe, called on member states to implement the legislation as soon as possible. They said: “Today’s vote is a huge victory for Europe’s nature and citizens, who have long called for immediate action to tackle nature’s alarming decline.”
