EU

EU in new deadlock over rewilding law

Eleventh-hour change of heart from Hungary has upended the slim majority by which the law passed last month

Eamon Ryan, the climate minister and Green Party leader who is in Brussels to meet his EU counterparts today, said the bloc “seems to be in retreat on commitments we have made”. Picture: Damien Storan/PA Wire

A tenuous EU deal to ‘rewild’ bogs, rivers and forests by 2030 is once again on the rocks after last-minute opposition by Hungary.

The EU’s nature restoration law has already been watered down several times since the European Commission first tabled it in 2022, with the aim of restoring bird, animal and plant life to land and seas.

MEPs and EU governments came to a preliminary deal on the draft law last month after creating ...