The EU institutions reached an agreement on the nature recovery plan

The plan is one of the key parts of Europe’s Green Deal, which aims to set the world’s most ambitious climate and biodiversity targets and make the bloc a global benchmark on all climate issues.

However, the plan faced a difficult EU approval process and now only a watered-down version will be put forward for a final vote.

The agreement reached late Thursday by the European Parliament and EU member states was supposed to be the end of the approval process under the usual procedure. But given the plan’s previous controversies, the final votes, which are usually a mere formality, could still cause some disruption.

The ambitions of the targets were scaled back during the summer negotiations, amid fierce opposition in the EP, particularly in its largest political group, the Christian Democratic European People’s Party (EPP).

“The final text of this law has little in common with the original proposal,” said ELP lawmaker Christine Schneider (Kristin Šnaider).

The opposition of some EPP members also drew attention to the ongoing struggle in Europe over how to deal with climate issues. Despite droughts, floods and heatwaves hitting many parts of the continent, the EPP wants to see such environmental action put on hold over the next five years and focus on economic competitiveness.

According to the above-mentioned plan, Member States should achieve recovery targets for specific habitats and species in order to restore at least one fifth of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030. However, the negotiations have been contested over exemptions and flexibility clauses that allow member states to circumvent the rules.

“The negotiators have cut the law so much that there is a risk that it will be worthless in practice and open to abuse,” said Ioannis Agapakis, a lawyer at the conservation group ClientEarth. According to him, the weakened provisions set a frightening precedent for EU legislation, rather than cementing the bloc’s position at the forefront of biodiversity conservation.

But the EPP and other conservatives and the far right say the plans would harm food security, increase inflation and be bad for farmers.