BRUSSELS — The leader of the European Parliament’s liberal Renew Europe group said he will try to rescue a key chunk of the Green Deal that was nearly struck down amid fierce pushback by conservative lawmakers.
Three Parliament committees, including the crucial environment committee, rejected the Commission’s proposal to restore 20 percent of degraded habitats this decade, and lawmakers could sign its death warrant at a plenary in Strasbourg in mid-July.
Stéphane Séjourné, a top French MEP, told POLITICO in an interview that he will propose a compromise text that will be “a way to save the law.”
“We’re going to take the lead in the heart of my group to propose a new, more balanced version which guarantees the unity of my group and at the same time can convince the [center-right European People’s Party] and [the Socialists & Democrats] to possibly find a majority on this text,” he said.
He gave few hints about what could truly differ in his version from the text that failed to pass the Parliament’s committees, but said it would be closer to the positions of the Council of the EU and the European Commission.
In a series of knife-edge committee votes, some of Séjourné’s own members voted against the bill — but Séjourné insisted that each Renew MEP is free to vote how they please in committees.
Renew’s struggle to find a common stance on the nature restoration law has been an obstacle to securing a majority for the proposal. At a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, the group was still “totally split,” according to one person who attended the meeting and backs the proposal, who was granted anonymity to discuss the negotiations.
Another person who attended the meeting and also supports the proposal struck a more positive tone, saying “more than two thirds of the group agreed to work on a position to support the text in plenary in July.”
Séjourné also took a swipe at EPP chief Manfred Weber, who was accused of underhanded tactics to get his members to vote against the bill. “Firmness doesn’t equal political authority,” he said, without mentioning Weber by name.
Parliament President Roberta Metsola said Thursday she had spoken to heads of government about the contentious file at a European Council summit. “If you ask me, this is democracy in action,” she told journalists at a press conference.
