The stalling and delay by the Council of the EU in adopting the Nature Restoration Law has been described as “a piece of pre-election political theatre” by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).
After seemingly being in limbo for almost three months, the law has now been formally adopted by the Council of the EU, following a meeting of environment ministers this morning (Monday, June 17).
The adoption of the regulation means that it will shortly become law across the EU, as the European Parliament adopted the law back in February, following the results of trilogue negotiations between representatives of the council and the parliament last November.
Reacting, IFA president Francie Gorman said that that passage of the law this morning “was no great surprise” now that the European Parliament elections are over.
“It was always likely that the law would pass once the EU elections were over. Farmers will see the post-trilogue stalling of this law by member states as a piece of pre-election political theatre,” he said.
According to Gorman, there is still considerable concern over what the law will require of farmers and what its impact on farm productivity will be.
“The approach by the commission to bring in a law on this area rather than a properly-funded, EU-wide, voluntary scheme is totally wrong. The reality is that there is a huge amount of uncertainty about how this law is going to be interpreted at member state level,” he said.
“No national impact assessment has been carried out and we have no idea how it will impact on food production, and ultimately on food security.”
Gorman went on the criticise Ireland for backing the law in the council.
“The Irish government was wrong to support the introduction of this law without the completion of an impact assessment and a dedicated budget to support its implementation,” he said.
“A huge amount of work is now needed on how this law will be implemented in Ireland. I want to make it clear that the IFA will not stand for farmers’ property rights or their right to farm their land being undermined,” the IFA president added.
The vote by the council on the Nature Restoration Law, which was originally supposed to be held on March 25 but was postponed as a number of member states withdrew support for the law, was finally held today.
One member state, Austria, flipped its position to supporting the controversial law, allowing it to be passed by meeting the required qualified majority.
In a qualified majority, 15, or in some case 20, member states have to be in agreement, and those countries have to account for 65% of the EU’s population.
20 member states voted in favour, including Ireland, accounting for just over 66% of the EU’s population. Only six member states (Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland and Sweden) voted against, while one, Belgium, abstained.