César LUENA (S&D, ES), rapporteur on EU's nature restoration law, and Pascal CANFIN (Renew, FR), ENVI Chair hold a press conference after the voting on a draft regulation to introduce legally binding EU targets to restore Europe's damaged ecosystems - forests and agricultural land to urban areas, rivers and marine habitats - by 2050. The transcript is the result of an automated process. Please check against delivery

Brussels

press conference

CANFIN, Pascal (Renew, FR)

LUENA, César (S&D, ES)

European Green Deal (T)

Delivery EE2024 (T)

nature restoration law (T)

Press conference on Nature Restoration Law by César LUENA (S&D, ES), rapporteur on EU's nature restoration law and Pascal CANFIN (Renew, FR), ENVI Chair

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), C&eacute;sar LUENA (S&amp;D, ES) Thank you very much. I'm going to give a brief political evaluation. I presume that Pascal will also have a statement to make of some kind, and then I'll be able to take any questions you have.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) There may be legal questions about where we stand, what happens now, and I may not be able to respond to all of those, but we have the ENVI Chair here. And if not, then you also have the legal services from the Environment Committee from the Parliament that can resolve those.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) My political evaluation is quite straightforward. And I did give a speech just before the votes. Well, I shared those. Firstly, we had an important vote in Strasbourg where we put a stop to the right and far right 12 days ago and now we go to the plenary. So that is the headline.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) Following the Agri and Fish Committee. The only committee then rejected the proposal and that could have put a stop to the first law in 70 years on this issue. But that's not the case, because we have managed to put a stop to that right wing coalition and we will now go to the plenary.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) It is true that we won't be going there with the report, so we will have to vote on the rejection as we did in Strasbourg, and then we will table new amendments, which of course will be largely based on the compromises that we've already agreed on. And that's the most important point I had to make.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) So we continue with the law on European nature, with the procedures. The right wing have tried to block and prevent, with the complicity of other parties on the right. And we will be taking this to the July plenary. That's important

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) Christine and Peter will no doubt say, after we leave: it will be September. But if their idea and their strategy and their policy is to reject this text and to say that the first vote that we do in Strasbourg in three weeks time will be to reject this text. I don't think that's very logical that you don't want to put that vote back to September. Why would you do that if you're not wanting to table amendments?

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) Perhaps they want to negotiate, but if what they want to do is to reject the text, why delay things until September? If that's the only proposal, a negative proposal. That rejection. So the law continues on its course and we will try to ensure that we have a discussion on this in plenary. It needs to be discussed in the July plenary. So very soon.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) Second point. It is very important that the Council adopted its position last week that it's very important. Mr. WEBER has found that there are people withdrawing from his strategy. There are conservative governments who had supported his position, but then there was a division and the EPP, which has a real problem with this law, it's starting to come apart. And the evaluation that I would make as the rapporteur, on the Council position, is that it is exceptionally important.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) Many members will be voting on this in plenary and that will be a vital vote, taking into account the fact the Council has taken a position on this already. So the aim was to stop things progressing and they have managed to achieve that. So what happens now is down to dialogue and negotiation and that's what I can do and that's what I'm here for. I represent the Europeans people in Spain for this purpose, for dialogue and negotiation.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) And I reach out, but I have hands reached out, especially to the EPP. And if it's worth anything, then to Mr. Weber, we need to come up with a strategy. Yes, there's an internal political dispute, but the strategy has been to compete with the far right when it comes to the far right's policies, and that always fails. And we're starting to see that even in Spain, even in his country.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) And I would also make an appeal from here to the president of the European Commission, a solemn appeal: we are waiting to hear reaction. But we all know that there is an internal dispute within the EPP and everybody is taking a position wherever they deem it fit. But the first ever law of nature biodiversity in Europe cannot depend on a political row, an internal row in a political party.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) I have a lot of esteem for Ms. Von der Leyen. We supported her, our political group, in a pact of for her to become president of the Commission with a key policy, the European Green Deal, and now her political family are moving away from that deal and she hasn't said anything. So I think that before the Strasbourg plenary, Ms. von der Leyen should react

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) Next point: civil society, NGOs, scientists. This law has been achieved thanks to all of those efforts. Those are the people who have worked on this, not just on a law on climate change, but also to ensure that we have a law on biodiversity and nature conservation.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) So I wanted to recognise their contribution and also to encourage them. I want to welcome them, and I hope that by the July plenary we can continue to keep up the fight. Please do everything you can, keep putting pressure on people, keep disseminating the right information.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) Then I'd like to start to thank the four groups who have contributed to the agreement: the Liberals, Mr. Canfin. To all of those who are involved and also to the staff in my own political group, to our leaders, actually got the apparate who has really focused on this, given as a priority.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) And then next points: you've seen what I had to say in committee and probably only a couple of Spaniards know me here, but I'm usually an optimist, almost as much as President Zapatero. And I think that this is something that we can get through, we can make progress on. I think we can get a majority in the plenary.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) There aren't many people who thought that we would manage to block the development in the Environment Committee. We did manage it. And I'm an optimist because I think that we can get a majority in the plenary, so we need to work to get that majority.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) And secondly, in a few days time, the Spanish presidency will be taking over and the Spanish presidency will treat this as a priority. And that is also good news. A lot of lies have been said about this proposal. So I'd like to just reiterate something that I've already said when I spoke in the committee. I think it's important there have been lots of myths and lies spread about.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) So when you have a political dispute, you need to have facts and information, correct information and ideas to back up your arguments, not lies. This law will help to guarantee food security. It will benefit farmers, fishers. It will help people in those sectors. And I know that there are conservative, very conservative professional organisations saying the opposite, but they are serving a particular political strategy.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) That's my opinion, because this law actually guarantees food security. We agreed on it, we agreed on it with the PPE, even though they then voted against.Iit will also benefit business and the economy. Healthy ecosystems go together with a wealth of resources and we know that there are lots of businesses supporting this law and the Commission. The European Commission would also agree this law will help to combat climate change.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) It will make us more resilient and help us to adapt to the increasingly extreme impacts of climate change. This law will guarantee all of those things. It will help us to improve health, not only the health of ecosystems, but also the health of individuals. And it will also help to guarantee that we have a habitable planet for future generations.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) So these are five important truths which come out of this law, and it's worth keep working on this to make progress. We've had 70 years of the European project and we've done all sorts of things. We have managed to get vaccines in record time, to react together in the face of a war. And many people are raising questions, in particular young people. And they want to know, if you have been able to do all of that in four years how are you then not able to drive through a law on biodiversity and nature?

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) That's the question that people are asking and it's really down to the right hand side to of this Parliament when it comes to the response, I'll be happy to take any questions that you have, but beforehand I thank our Chair of the Environment Committee who would like to speak and I'm very grateful to him for coming along.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), César LUENA (S&D, ES) And I also like to thank him for his availability as chair of the Environment Committee. It's been a very complex law that been lots of amendments tabled, lengthy negotiations, and he has always been ready to help and to lend a hand. So I'm very grateful for that.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pascal CANFIN (Renew, FR), Just another word on the vote today and the vote two weeks ago. So as you know, it was 44 44. And the one of the key element is that the EPP was 100% aligned last time and this time behind the no and the rejection. And I know that's one third of the EPP voters today. One third was not part of the ENVI committee.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pascal CANFIN (Renew, FR), So a significant number of the ENVI EPP members as just been replaced by others. Now what is interesting is also to look at who replaced them. One third of the voters and the EPP today belong to the CDU delegation. When you look at the group that sedutes with the rejection, it's one fifth and out of and three quarters of the people replacing ENVI members came from AGRI committee.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pascal CANFIN (Renew, FR), So it was a very clear and I use this term, manipulation, it was a very clear manipulation of the vote from Manfred Weber replacing people from all over Europe in favour of this text. This text as amended, not the initial cover proposal of the Commission, and they were just not allowed to vote and they were replaced by AGRI members from Germany basically.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pascal CANFIN (Renew, FR), It cannot happen in the plenary, because Manfred Weber cannot replaced members in the penalty and if the diversity of the opinions of the EPP would have been reflected in the ENVI vote, exactly as the diversity of the opinion in Renew has been reflected in the ENVI vote, and nobody in Renew tried to manipulate the vote in Renew ENVI. Then we would have have a majority, not a wide majority, but a very clear majority. And we wouldn't be in front of you today saying it's 44 44.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pascal CANFIN (Renew, FR), It's does not reflect the reality of the EPP diversity on this text. And I would say that as a chair of a committee, the Energy committee, it's very appalling to see that a political group is able to manipulate to that extent one third. It's not just two people here and there. One third of people being substituted by others. So it's also a lesson to look at.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pascal CANFIN (Renew, FR), Now when we move to the plenary. What is also interesting is that in the Council last week, the majority of the EPP led government voted in favour of this text: Romania. Bulgaria, Czech Republic. Ireland. Greece. They voted in favour of this text. So did not even abstained they just voted in favour.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pascal CANFIN (Renew, FR), So between a 100% opposition we saw today, and we saw last time in ENVI, is manipulated by Weber. And in the diversity of the EPP Group on this text, there is a clear space to go for the plenary and to win, and that's what we are going to work on in the next days.

Q&A First round of questions focusing on: the perception of green policies across Europe, especially in countries with anti-green movements; the possible outcomes, either negative or positves, of the plenary vote in Strasbourg; and on the new structure of the ENVI Committee, especially after the exit of Renew.

Q&A on the Law text that will be presented during the plenary, and how it will be changed after the last round of votes; on the exact approach that will be used to negotiate the proposed law in the plenary, with a followup on how right wing parties are currently polarizing the debate on green policies and migration. Second round of questions: