The Nature Restoration Law, adopted by the European Parliament in February, in facing delays and a difficult passage as some Member States rebel.

The Nature Restoration Law sets out multiple binding restoration targets and obligations for EU ecosystems, such as forests, rivers and seas and is seen as a major component of the EU's flagship Green Deal but now several Member States are blocking its final adoption.

The legislation, first proposed in 2022, is already a little battered and bruised, and not as strident as first proposed having been watered down following protests in EU capitals from farmers, but as always politics has now created an existentialist threat as bloc-wide elections in June see countries barter favours for agreeing or attempt to woo rural voters.

The potential of the law is, in microcosm, the issue that the EU has with is environmental desires: different countries with different levels of agriculture or industrial manufacture are finding it hard to agree common goals. What is true of Germany and ICE car making is true of Italy and farming. As such, the entire future of the Green Deal could be at stake, and this battle over the Nature Restoration Law id both symbolic and defining.

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