Green Conscience

June 21, 2024 12:31 AM

The EU has passed a nature restoration law which, despite its reduced scope appeared to be headed for the policy graveyard. The law was saved by Austria's climate minister, Leonore Gewessler, whose vote of conscience hit the bar of support of 55% of EU member states representing 65% of EU population. Her government attempted to have her vote disregarded, and she now looks likely to face criminal prosecution. (Via fixthenews)
posted by protorp (5 comments total)

QFT: “In 20 or 30 years, when I will talk to my two nieces and show them the beauty of our country and of this continent, and they ask me: ‘What did you do when everything was at stake?’ I want to be able to tell them: ‘I tried to support as much as I could,’" she said.
posted by chavenet at 3:21 AM on June 21 [6 favorites]

Austria was necessary, but just their vote wouldn’t have been enough. The other last minute switch, which possibly precipitated Gewessler’s crisis of conscience since hers was suddenly the decisive vote, was Slovakia saying yes in exchange for killing bears. I’m exaggerating slightly, but not by much. Excerpt from the Politico piece I linked:

Bear attacks have become a prominent political issue in Slovakia after a rise in violent incidents involving people in the past three years. “People in Slovakia are very afraid,” [Slovakia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tomáš] Taraba said.

This month the Slovak parliament passed a law allowing the government to issue emergency permits to kill bears that approach human settlements. According to the legal charity ClientEarth, the move likely breaches the EU's strict limits on the circumstances and conditions under which protected species, like bears, can be killed.

EU environment chief Virginijus Sinkevičius denied any quid pro quo. “That's a very strange rumor … there were no discussions or negotiations: bears or nature restoration law. … It wasn't some trading there or anything like that.”

He added that no specific accommodations were made to get Slovakia’s support for the Nature Restoration Law.

But in the note to Taraba sent on Monday, June 10, Sinkevičius appeared to offer the guarantee the Slovak was seeking. Sinkevičius said his legal team had arrived at their decision just two working days after a meeting between Commission and Slovak officials in which Taraba said he had laid out something approaching an ultimatum.

“As agreed during the meeting on Thursday,” Sinkevičius wrote, “our experts have now looked as thoroughly as possible into the new Slovak law amending the Civil Protection Act and the Nature Act, and I am happy to share with you that they conclude that the new law appears to be largely in compliance with the EU Habitats Directive.”

But there were “some provisions, where conformity with EU law will very much depend on how these provisions will be applied,” he added.

Taraba ignored those caveats, telling POLITICO the Commission had found them in “full compliance” with EU law.

Sinkevičius concluded his note by turning to the upcoming vote on the Nature Restoration Law. He acknowledged Taraba’s concerns about the bill but expressed his hope that the minister would now vote in favor.

I realize that you should never look into how the sausage is made, but I still didn’t expect to find bear meat inside.
posted by Kattullus at 3:59 AM on June 21 [13 favorites]

Ecological Restoration is a depressing field and an amazing field. In 60 years, the scientific and engineering leaps and bounds, the cultural shifts away from erasing indigenous engineering practices have all been intellectually dizzying.

We could create a new economy based on engineering with nature....but it would mean very rich people would have to think and work, so....enh.
posted by eustatic at 6:17 AM on June 21 [6 favorites]

According to Austrian law, the country's federal regions must come up with a joint position on environmental matters. If they can't, it's up to the federal minister to decide.

Until last week, the regions all opposed the bill. But at the last minute the region of Vienna changed its mind, breaking the consensus and opening the door for Gewessler to modify Austria's position at the EU level and back the legislation.

Sounds like Gewessler's boss doesn't have a leg to stand on. See also from the Politico piece, turnabout is fair play:

She noted that Austria’s agriculture minister, who hails from Nehammer’s center-right ÖVP party, had previously done exactly what she did: "Just a couple of weeks ago, [he] voted against my explicit will, for lowering environmental standards in [EU] agricultural policy."

"We continued to work,” Gewessler added. “His action was legal, my action is legal."

posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:07 AM on June 21 [3 favorites]

A bit of information to contextualize Gewessler's vote further:

+ more than 80% of the Austrian population supports the nature restoration law (n = 1000; a German-language press release on the matter)

+ the center-right ÖVP party probably knows that they do not have much legal ground to stand on, but with national elections coming up in September (with the far-right FPÖ currently projected in the lead) ÖVP is fuming loudly and publicly to appease their base

+ ÖVP does not have much moral ground to stand on either, most recently walking back on an act of parliament against the EU's controversial chat control law, and secretly lobbying for it (German-language news source). The law luckily was not voted on this time (thanks Germany!), but wonderfully illustrates ÖVP's double standards.
posted by bigendian at 8:52 AM on June 21 [5 favorites]