The bumpy landing of the EU Nature Restoration Law and the rule of law: process and substance

The legislative process on the adoption of the Nature Restoration Law was an unexpected rollercoaster, which raises concerns on the rule of law, relating both to the legislative process and the impact it had on the substance of the law. If the attempts to withdraw the law had been successful, this would have had negative impacts on reaching international and EU climate and biodiversity goals. Although the law has been weakened, it still holds potential for upscaling restoration within the EU, also for reaching the obligations under existing nature conservation legislation. As the Nature Restoration Law also wants to contribute to reaching climate goals, an alignment is included with climate adaptation and mitigation objectives, and specifically between drawing nature restoration plans and renewable energy acceleration areas. However, the Nature Restoration Law potentially offers loopholes regarding the avoidance of negative impacts on nature from renewable energy projects. This might potentially lead to conflicts rather than synergies across objectives.