A proposal to torpedo the EU project failed to achieve a majority with 44 votes against 44, and was thus rejected. This also ended CDA parliamentary group leader Esther de Lange’s attempt, supported by liberals and conservatives from SGP, VVD, FvD, and JA21 (‘from the right’), to block the proposal.
However, because the ENVI environment committee submitted many dozens of amendments to the final opinion, the committee’s 88 members had to vote electronically on dozens of occasions, many of which also ended in a 44-44 deadlock.
Since the series of votes had to be cut short halfway through the day due to lack of time, the remainder will be handled two weeks later during a regular committee meeting on June 27. As a result, it is currently still unclear what the environment committee’s final position on the nature restoration law will be.
The 44-44 result also made clear that the two major political groups (EPP/CDA and S&D/PvdA) are sharply opposed, that the Greens, Left, and S&D support it, and that Renew/lLiberals hold an intermediate position. Dutch VVD member Jan Huitema said he expects that next month, during the full parliamentary session, new compromises may be reached.
GreenLeft MEP Bas Eickhout called it an important signal that the law was not voted down. “But we are still in the middle of the storm and it is unclear which way this will go. It is certain, however, that we still have work to do to reach a good proposal with a majority in parliament.”
PvdA MEP Mohamed Chahim expressed similar views afterwards. He said he still sees possibilities to reach a compromise with EPP/CDA and Renew/VVD that can gain a wide majority in July.
He again criticized the way the EPP had, in recent weeks, pressured its own EPP politicians with something like a voting whip. He said he had spoken with “some EPP” and ECR members who say they will vote in favor of the final nature restoration law.
In a first reaction, CDA MEP Esther de Lange said: “Every amendment was always fifty-fifty. The Agriculture and Fisheries Committee has already rejected this proposal. The signal is clear: this proposal is and remains controversial and the European Commission better go back to the drawing board.” She did not respond to Chahim’s offer to discuss the matter again in the coming two weeks.
Like the ENVI parliamentary committee, the 27 EU countries also have not yet taken a final position on the proposal. However, under the Swedish presidency, a number of concessions and relaxations have been formulated that will be discussed next week (June 20) by the Environment Ministers. The European Commission has also weakened the much-criticized 'result obligation' — mainly opposed by the Netherlands — into an 'effort obligation.'