The conservative European People’s Party (EPP) has yet again demonstrated great irresponsibility by turning a blind eye to both the climate and biodiversity crises – which Europeans have to cope with.

After months of meetings on the Nature Restoration Law, the EPP have today decided to break away from the European Parliament’s negotiations. This law is an important pillar of the Green Deal – aiming to restore nature and prevent further biodiversity loss to allow the European Union to achieve its climate and biodiversity goals.

César Luena, S&D MEP and rapporteur on the Nature Restoration Law, says:

“I am appalled to see this happening today, after six rounds of political negotiations and countless technical meetings where we have all made efforts to accommodate the EPP’s concerns and demands.

“However, I am happy to report that our work continues. We will not give up. On the contrary, we are stepping up our efforts to achieve a solid majority ahead of the vote in committee.”

Mohammed Chahim, S&D vice-president on the Green Deal, says:

"The EPP is showing great irresponsibility by pitting farmers against nature protection. Worsening climate change, with its extreme impacts like repeated droughts, as well as biodiversity loss, are already harming farmers' activities and severely decreasing land productivity. The situation will only get worse if we don't put in place the laws needed to further protect the environment and the climate. What we need is more nature to absorb CO2 and restore our biodiversity to make our agriculture more sustainable.

“The threatening of the nature restoration law puts not only the sustainability of rural areas at risk, but also the greening potential of cities, including more parks and trees. This will make it more challenging to be resilient in the face of increasing temperatures during summer time.

"We, the Socialists and Democrats, will put all our strength into achieving what we promised four years ago when the hemicycle declared the climate and environment emergency, for the sake of people and the planet.”