EPP accused of allying with far right to weaken deforestation rules

BRUSSELS — The European People’s Party has drawn fury from centrist and center-left groups after it joined forces with right-wing and far-right parties in Parliament to dilute anti-deforestation rules that are a key pillar of the European Green Deal.
A majority of lawmakers on Thursday voted in favor of an EPP proposal to water down the regulation, despite opposition from the center-left Socialists and Democrats and centrist Renew Europe groups. The law is designed to ensure products sold within the EU do not contribute to global deforestation.
It was a major early legislative test of the new Parliament following June’s election in which the right gained ground, and appeared to confirm predictions that the center-right EPP, the biggest political grouping in the legislature, would form opportunistic alliances with the hard and far right rather than stick to centrist coalitions of previous parliaments.
The European Commission proposed last month to delay implementation of the regulation by a year, citing concerns about the readiness of industries and trading partners. But that wasn’t enough for the EPP, which also wanted to tweak the legislation to cut red tape.
Even though the final EPP proposal was less extreme than an earlier version, centrist and left-wing groups said it was a betrayal that broke the so-called cordon sanitaire, an unwritten rule to refuse to cooperate with far-right parties.
Kathleen Van Brempt, an S&D member of the European Parliament, said the outcome was an “absolute disgrace,” complaining that “The EPP breaks the cordon [sanitaire] and forms a far-right majority to undermine and block European deforestation legislation.” Green MEP David Cormand also said the outcome was a setback, adding that it had exposed the pro-European coalition that backed Ursula von der Leyen for a second Commission term as “a lie.”
Christine Schneider, the EPP member in charge of pushing through the controversial amendments, strongly rejected accusations that her group was in league with the far right.
“I didn’t play with the far right, that’s very clear,” Schneider told a press conference after the vote, insisting she had sought compromises with Renew and S&D lawmakers.
Schneider argued she was simply delivering on campaign promises: “Today was the first chance since the European election to deliver what we promised: to reduce bureaucracy.”
She added: “I promised that I will find ways to make this proposal workable, not to reduce or to water [it] down … that was my job, and I did it.”
But French Renew MEP Pascal Canfin said that “the EPP has to choose,” warning Thursday’s vote could mark the beginning of a political crisis. He argued the EPP cannot govern back and forth between a far-right majority and a pro-democratic majority with the S&D and Renew.
The Greens’ co-leader, Terry Reintke, called on the EPP to “come to its senses and return to the center,” but also hit at Renew, a more centrist grouping, for allowing the final vote to go through. “The Liberals must also remain firmly on the side of the center here — after all, one-third voted today for the chaotic course of the far-right majority.”
Meanwhile, far-right groups were triumphant after the vote.
French far-right MEP Sarah Knafo of the Europe of Sovereign Nations group said: “We are starting to impose a new right-wing majority against punitive ecology.”
Thursday’s vote was marked by chaos and confusion.
It started with the EPP walking back some of its more drastic proposed amendments, including dropping a proposal to delay implementation by two years rather than one. The final proposal stuck with the one-year delay, but included carve-outs for products from “no risk” jurisdictions.
At the vote itself, a number of MEPs among the Greens, the S&D and Renew — but also the EPP — complained that voting machines were not working, putting into question the legitimacy of the vote.
The vote was “a complete mess,” according to the Greens’ Thomas Waitz, who couldn’t get his voting booth to function.
But European Parliament speaker Roberta Metsola refused to redo the vote, saying voting booths appeared to have functioned normally.
The Greens, S&D and Renew will challenge the vote and ask for it to be redone, Renew’s Canfin told reporters after the vote. “We have no idea whether it will change the results, but it’s obvious it was not transparent and wasn’t done as it should have been.”
German S&D MEP Delara Burkhardt downplayed the significance of the changes introduced by the EPP, saying what passed was “mostly symbolic and does not change the essence of the law,” while Canfin said the moderates had “managed to counter the worst-case scenario.”
Still, both the S&D and Renew hope that the Council of the European Union, which represents the 27 member countries, will reject the EPP’s amendments.
The proposed amendments must now be agreed upon by the Commission and member countries through the Council of the EU before they are enacted.
Eddy Wax contributed reporting.