"We do not have the luxury of breaks, neither in climate policy nor in the protection of our biodiversity" in environmental matters, launched Friday, June 2 the Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, on the occasion of the Jacques Delors 2023 Conference in Paris.
"The climate crisis is accelerating" while "60% or more of European land is in poor condition, we are losing our bees, we are creating periods of drought that will prevent agricultural production on huge surfaces…”, he recalled.
His remarks echo the "European regulatory pause" called for by French President Emmanuel Macron on environmental standards, which has created some concern in Brussels and among environmental activists. "Let's apply and go to the end" of the European Union's Green Deal, "but let's not add more", had pleaded the latter.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called for a "pause", including on texts of the Green Pact still under negotiation, to "avoid overloading the boat" with environmental standards. Frans Timmermans particularly insisted on the stakes in terms of biodiversity, at a time when negotiations are becoming more complicated around the nature restoration law.
"Without nature there is no way to protect Europe"
This key text of the European Green Pact (or Green Deal), which sets binding objectives for the restoration of damaged ecosystems, arouses reluctance from Member States and MEPs, who are concerned in particular about the possible impact on the agricultural production.
The text was the subject at the end of May of two – consultative – votes of rejection in the Agriculture and Fisheries Committees of the European Parliament, before a final vote expected in mid-June in the Environment Committee. The EPP group (right), the first political force in Parliament, is asking for its withdrawal, as well as a moratorium on another text providing for a reduction in the use of pesticides.
“Without nature protection (…) the Green Deal will fail because a large part of the measures we have decided on depend on nature's ability to sequester carbon. A dead land does not sequester carbon,” Mr. Timmermans recalled, adding: “Without nature there is no way to protect Europe and the world against the climate crisis. »
