Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 5 October 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

EU Nature Restoration Target: COPA-COGECA

Mr. Niall Curley:

Yes, 100%.

Under the criteria set out in the Aarhus Convention, a UN declaration to which the EU has signed up and we have to follow, NGOs will be able to sue their member state governments and bring them to the European Court of Justice for the non-fulfilment of these targets. A target will be set for each decade, that is, for 2030, 2040 and 2050. The first analysis or review of these targets and their fulfilment will happen many years after it has been fully implemented, to the extent that due to the lack of sincere funding, the legal structure here and in other member states and farmers or foresters owning land that they do not want to give up, there will be a significant backlash against this in general across Europe. I foresee, as so do COPA-COGECA and many people here in Brussels, member states being sued by NGOs across Europe in respect of this.