EU Approves Nature Restoration Law
Austria’s unexpected support means the flagship biodiversity legislation will pass despite opposition from farmers.
EU member states have approved the bloc’s central biodiversity policy, the Nature Restoration Law, after Austria made a surprise last-minute decision to back the legislation.
As a result, EU members will now be subject to the most comprehensive set of biodiversity targets in the bloc’s history. The unexpected twist will, nonetheless, be a significant blow to many of Europe’s farmers, who had vigorously opposed the law.
“Today, the Council of the EU is choosing to restore nature in Europe, thereby protecting its biodiversity and the living environment of European citizens,” said Alain Maron, Minister for Climate Transition, Environment, Energy and Participatory Democracy of the Government of the Brussels-capital region – representing Belgium’s presidency of the council.
“It is our duty to respond to the urgency of the collapse of biodiversity in Europe, but also to enable the EU to meet its international commitments,” he added, in a reference to obligations under the UN’s Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), signed in Montreal in 2022.
Described as the most significant piece of EU nature legislation since the 1990s, the law aims to halt rapid decline in the health of Europe’s land and oceans and restore 20% of lost biodiversity by 2030. It had been opposed by a number of member states following bloc-wide farmer protests early this year, and was one of the most prominent unfinished items in the European Green Deal package of reforms.
Many doubted it would win approval before Belgium’s handover of the council presidency to Hungary, which withdrew its support for the legislation in March alongside seven other member states, putting the legislation’s future in further jeopardy.
As recently as Friday, Brussels insiders were predicting the Council of the EU would not have the numbers to approve the law. But Austrian Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler’s sudden change of heart – which contradicted the views of her conservative coalition partners in Vienna – has meant it passed the required threshold at a vote by the council on Monday. Governments representing at least 65% of the EU population need to back a legislation for it to become law.
Virginijus Sinkevičius, who led the policy’s design as European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, said the vote was “the right decision” and what citizens, scientists and the industry had called for. “We are still on track to reverse the biodiversity loss, let’s now start work together and show that EU is still leading the way,” he said on X.
Environmental campaigners welcomed the news, calling it a major victory for Europe’s nature and citizens.
“After years of intense campaigning and many ups and downs, we are jubilant that this law is now reality,” the #RestoreNature coalition – which includes BirdLife Europe, environmental law firm ClientEarth, the European Environmental Bureau and the World Wide Fund for Nature EU – said in a statement on Monday. “This day will go down in history as a turning point for nature and society.”
Gayaneh Shahbazian, Biodiversity Stewardship Engagement Manager at Morningstar Sustainalytics, suggested the commitment was also welcome ahead of COP16 in October, where countries are expected to show how their biodiversity strategies and action plans align with global goals.
“The adoption of the Nature Restoration Law is a landmark moment that demonstrates Europe’s commitment to addressing the biodiversity crisis by setting ambitious targets and contributing to the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework,” she said. “For businesses, it provides a crucial enabling framework, offering clear direction and legal certainty to take ambitious action in reducing their impacts on nature and contributing to its restoration.”
Member states must now implement this legislation swiftly to ensure its success and accelerate corporate action in this space, Gayaneh added.
The council’s approval was the final hurdle, with the new legislation now due to go into the EU’s official journal and come into effect immediately.
Restoring nature
Just as the EU Climate Law sets legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Nature Restoration Law sets them to improve biodiversity.
Both are intended to meet the EU’s commitments under UN treaties – the 2015 Paris Agreement in the case of greenhouse gas emissions, and the 2022 Montreal Agreement in the case of biodiversity protection.
The Nature Restoration Law was designed to halt and reverse “severe decline” of nature in Europe: according to the council, just 15% of the bloc’s biodiversity is in good condition, and without action it will further degrade..
Though not as well-understood by the public as climate change, biodiversity loss is regarded by many scientists as potentially as serious a threat to human society as rising global temperatures. The two crises are interconnected, they say, and solutions to one often lead to improvements in the other.
Key priorities of the new legislation include boosting butterfly and bee populations, improving the carbon content of soil, re-wetting drained peatland, bringing back biodiversity on agricultural land, and protecting oceans. It also calls for planting 3 billion additional trees by 2030, and turning at least 25,000 km of waterways into free-flowing rivers by the same date.
Member states will now have to develop their own national restoration plans, and provide details of projects and timelines for their completion.
Momentous decision
The Nature Restoration Law was proposed by the European Commission in 2022 and received provisional backing by the EU’s two legislative bodies, the parliament and the council, late last year. But early in 2024, farmers’ protests erupted across Europe, directed at a swathe of grievances – including a growing body of green regulations, which many deemed too onerous.
Europe’s powerful agriculture sector lobby group Copa-Cogeca campaigned against the law, calling it “completely unrealistic for farmers”, and arguing financing for the proposed law was inadequate and over-reliant on funds from the EU’s common agricultural policy.
While parliament passed the law regardless, Hungary, Sweden, Poland, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Italy, all withdrew their support.
At a press conference on Sunday evening, Austria’s Environment Minister and The Greens party member Leonore Gewessler announced she would vote in favour, going against her own conservative coalition partners in Vienna.
“The time for decisiveness has come,” she was quoted as saying. “I will vote in favour of the EU Nature Restoration Law on Monday.”
Notwithstanding the popularity of Gewessler’s decision across the bloc and among environmental campaigners, her move has drawn strong criticism at home.
A spokesperson for Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer, for instance, said her vote did “not reflect the will of the country” and would be challenged in the European Court of Justice – potentially bringing back uncertainty over the law’s future.
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