The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) has described a recent opinion poll on the proposed EU Nature Restoration Law (NRL) as “a concerning development”.
The survey, commissioned by the #RestoreNature coalition, was carried out in six EU countries which currently oppose the law and found that 75% of citizens are in favour of the legislation.
The poll of almost 6,200 people was conducted by independent research agency Savanta across Poland, Finland, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands and Hungary earlier this month.
INHFA
INHFA president Vincent Roddy claimed that “the opinion polls are clearly designed to put pressure on those countries’ national parliaments and the use of opinion polls in this manner is very concerning”.
“The fact that the opinion poll was only conducted in six countries opposed to the law and not all EU countries, indicates clear intent around its objectives and you have to wonder, would the poll be published if it didn’t indicate support for the NRL,” he added.
Roddy said that the body that commissioned the poll, #RestoreNature coalition, are receiving financial support through the EU LIFE Programme and the EU Commission, according to its website.
“While the EU Commission and LIFE Programme will maintain that their financial support for #RestoreNature doesn’t necessarily mean they were supportive of the polling, we should recognise that these opinion polls will definitely benefit EU institutions anxious to get the NRL passed,” he said.
NRL
The NRL was adopted by the European Parliament in February and it was expected the the Council of the EU (council of ministers) would do the same in March, in what would have been the final hurdle for the law to pass before it was enacted.
However, after a number of member states changed their position, no vote took place in the council of environment ministers as the required qualified majority for the law to be adopted would not be reached.
Earlier this month, the leader of the Green Party Eamon Ryan, and one of his party colleagues Malcolm Noonan, wrote to EU environment ministers to try to secure the adoption of the law at a meeting scheduled for June 17.
The INHFA said that the letter was “act of desperation” and called on Minister Ryan to “acknowledge the concern there is around this law, both in Ireland and across Europe, and go back to the drawing board instead of trying to bulldoze this through”.