The Nature Restoration Law has been withdrawn from the agenda of two European Commission meetings.

The law is no longer on the agenda of today’s meeting of the committee of permanent representatives or Monday’s meeting of European Union (EU) environment ministers.

Monday’s agenda, published this Friday, contains no mention of the law.

This comes amid reports that a number of EU member states said they would abstain or vote against the law.

A Government source told the Irish Farmers Journal that work will continue over the weekend between member states to get the law on to Monday’s agenda.

“Ireland is already doing nature restoration across the country and Ireland’s National Biodiversity Action Plan provides for a national nature restoration plan,” they said.

Reaction

Responding to the withdrawal of the nature restoration law from the agendas, Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) president Francie Gorman said the law should be parked until after the European elections.

“We said at the time of the Parliament vote last month that a vacuum of information still existed around the Nature Restoration Law.

“That uncertainty has persisted and there’s a strong case for the nature restoration law to be re-examined by those who will have a fresh mandate after June’s elections,” he said.

Gorman added that it would be ironic if the European Commission were to try and push ahead with the law at the same time they are announcing simplification measures.

“This goes to the heart of the debate and has been the basis for the campaign we have been running in recent months around regulation.

Farmers are doing more to support nature than any other sector of society

“Too often, proposals on a laptop don’t work on the land. The Commission now has an opportunity to rectify this, and they should take it,” he said.

Concerns

The IFA president outlined the concerns his organisation has around the law.

These include a lack of clarity on the requirements, the impact of certain definitions, uncertainty around the potential impact on farmland and the lack of dedicated funding to support its implementation.

“Farmers are doing more to support nature than any other sector of society with, on average, about 13% of the area on our farms dedicated to space for nature,” Gorman said.

INHFA

The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) welcomed the development.

"We are not aware of any proposed EU law that has seen such resistance both at European Parliament and Council level and it is time for the European Commission to finally listen to elected representatives and abandon this law.

"At national level it is disappointing but not suprising to see our Ministers and Government continuing to support this flawed law and ironic that the actions of other EU countries could be what saves our farming communities and rural Ireland," INHFA president Vincent Roddy said.

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