Nature Restoration Law ready for next step: adoption by EU-Parliament and Member States

The lobby on the EU Nature Restoration Law is still ongoing. What is the current status and what will happen next?

Trialogue

After the adoption of the proposal for the Nature Restoration Law by the Parliament, the negotiations in the trialogue between the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission started. A provisional deal on the final text of the regulation was reached on November 9th. The agreed text includes nature restoration targets, which must be achieved by Member States based on national restoration plans. The Regulation covers the whole range of ecosystems (terrestrial, marine, urban, agricultural and forest ecosystems) as well as specific objectives regarding the restoration of rivers and pollinator populations. The overall objective of the Nature Restoration Regulation is the long-term and sustained recovery of biodiverse and resilient ecosystems. Member States will have to put in place restoration measures with the aim to cover, by 2030, at least 20 % of land sea areas and, by 2050, all ecosystems in need of restoration. On November 29th, the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety in the European Parliament voted in favour of the provision deal. This opens the way for the next step in the legislative process, namely the formal adoption of the law by the Parliament and the Member States. It is to be expected that this step will be completed in February. Once this is done, the law will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. Member States will then need to submit their first nature restoration plan to the Commission within two years of the entry into force. Priority till 2030 will be given to the restoration of the so called Natura 2000 areas and areas that are of great interest for biodiversity.

Regulation in the urban area

In the meantime, we have analysed the text of the provision deal with special attention for the regulations in the urban domain. In article 6, we read the definition of the targets:

Article 6: Restoration of urban ecosystems
1. Member States shall ensure that there is no net loss in the total national area of urban green space, and of urban tree canopy cover in urban ecosystem areas, by 31 December 2030, compared to the year of entry into force of this regulation (…)

2. Member States shall achieve thereafter an increasing trend in the total national area of urban green space, including through integration of urban green space into buildings and infrastructure, in urban ecosystem areas, (…), measured every six years after 31 December 2030, until a satisfactory level (…) is reached. Member States shall achieve, in each urban ecosystem area, (…), an increasing trend of urban tree canopy cover, measured every six years after 31 December 2030, until the satisfactory level (…) is reached.

The elaboration on these targets must be made on national level. To make it concrete, the European Environment Agency will develop a framework for the composition of the national urban restoration plans and the way results are monitored and reported. By 2028, the Commission shall adopt implementing acts to establish a guiding framework for setting the satisfactory levels as referred to in amongst others article 6.

Actions

Looking at these definitions, planning and preparatory work, we continue our lobby on the implementation of the Nature Restoration Law and determined our next actions. We have already offered our support to the European Commission in the further elaboration of the urban paragraph and we also get in contact with the European Environment Agency.

WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER - HELP US !

Maybe you can also help us with input. There are some relevant questions that we want to answer to emphasize on the involvement of our green professionals and the green solutions they offer. We are happy if you could help us with input on the following questions:

1. Do you have research data on what citizens want regarding their urban environment?
2. Do you have best practices of urban green projects that extra benefit pollinators?
3. Do you have best practices of technical support instruments to monitor green projects?
4. Do you have suggestions for finance options to reinforce the green transition?

All input is welcome. You can send it to contact@elca.info and the ELCA Lobby Team will work further on it.

In the meantime, we keep you updated.

For any question, please let us know !