Green MEPs Grace O’Sullivan and Ciarán Cuffe have demanded their Irish colleagues stand up against an attack on EU climate and biodiversity targets from two of the European Parliament’s biggest groups. Last week, the European People’s Party (EPP) voted to block two essential EU green proposals to restore nature and reduce the use of pesticides - known as the Nature Restoration Law and the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation, respectively. As the largest group in Parliament, an EPP veto of these proposals means that they would be highly unlikely to finally become laws if these motions are acted upon. Fianna Fáil’s Renew Europe group has been increasingly divided over the details of the Nature Restoration Law.

Ciarán Cuffe, Green MEP for Dublin, said: “Blocking progress on key measures needed to guarantee long-term food security and protect the livelihoods and well-being of millions of people across Europe is at best irresponsible. Last month, the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss called on the Irish government to take urgent action to address biodiversity loss and restore nature. It is incumbent on all Irish politicians to heed this call, and that includes those in the European Parliament. Any actions to block the very minimum levels of progress on these points flies in the face of the science and the very real threat of climate change and the degradation of our environment that affects us all.”

Speaking from the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Grace O’Sullivan, MEP for Ireland South, said: “Politicians and MEPs should be held to account on the claims they made during the last elections with regard to their climate ambitions. Now we are seeing what can only be described as a complete U-Turn on climate action. Just today (Wednesday 10^th May), Commissioner Mairéad McGuinness defended the Nature Restoration Law as the “bedrock” of the EU’s international commitments on stopping biodiversity loss. I agree with her on this and it goes hand in hand with so many other parts of the European Green Deal. So why is her own political Group now pulling the plug on the whole thing?”

The Nature Restoration Law and the Sustainable Use Regulation are currently under negotiation in the respective EU institutions. The Nature Restoration Law will for the first time set out legally-binding restoration targets for a range of land and marine habitats and species, which together must cover at least 20% of the EU's land and sea area by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration, by 2050. The Sustainable Use Regulation will introduce EU-wide targets to reduce the use of pesticides. The Irish government has supported the progress of these laws in talks within the Council of the European Union.