"What we want is for us to go to the end of all the regulations that are provided for under the Green Deal. So we are actively working, especially on an important regulation, the regulation on the Restoration of nature" which deals with biodiversity, said during a press briefing the Prime Minister.

"And I can assure you that the France is very motor. It has been, and it will remain so, on a text that is indeed the subject of much debate" in the European Parliament, she assured. The biodiversity law is divisive even within the Renew group, where majority MEPs sit.

At his side, the European Commissioner for Environment and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevicius, welcomed the fact of "bringing together (stakeholders), consulting them" before implementing measures in favor of biodiversity.

"It works through dialogue: dialogue with local communities, farmers and foresters," he insisted, after sitting in the grass with the French leader, to hear children tell the life of insects.

"Share"

The Prime Minister had previously visited the Champagne and Burgundy National Park (Côte D'Or).

However, she said she "shared" Emmanuel Macron's remarks. For him, it is no longer necessary to "add" environmental standards after the application of the Green Deal, so as not to discourage investors. A position that echoes that of the European right and outrages the ecologists.

We must "not change gradually, too often, the objectives that we give ourselves, otherwise no one understands anything," said Friday Elisabeth Borne, who closed a week that was marked by ecology.

Carbon neutrality by 2050 © John SAEKI / AFP/Archives

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called for a "pause" in environmental regulation on Tuesday evening.

Elisabeth Borne was accompanied by many local elected officials and her ministers of both Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu and Agriculture Marc Fesneau.

While most of the EU's climate plan – which aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 – has been adopted (carbon market reform, carbon tax at borders, end of sales of cars with internal combustion engines, etc.), negotiations are skating for other key texts of this Pact on biodiversity, pesticides or polluting emissions from livestock farms, that worry farmers.

Elisabeth Borne considered the "erosion" of biodiversity "very worrying" with "damaging consequences" on "carbon sinks, water, air quality and even our food".

"Alert"

She specified "three axes" on which the France's strategy in this area will be based, which will be presented "in the summer": "to reduce pressure" on biodiversity by reducing the use of pesticides, and by combating soil artificialization; "restore" it by planting one billion trees by 2030; and finally "mobilize everyone". As such, the "educational areas" managed by schoolchildren will increase from 1,000 to 18,000 in 2030, and the number of young people in environmental civic service will be multiplied by 10.

A few dozen opponents waving CGT flags were kept away from the forest. A dozen others came to demonstrate in front of the town hall of Châtillon-sur-Seine to say on a banner "stop contempt Macron-Borne".

Asked about pro-climate demonstrators who had gathered in the morning near the general assembly of the Total group before being dislodged by the police, she said that "climate activists" were "in their role to alert and say that we must accelerate".

© 2023 AFP