EU budget plan would deal ‘devastating blow’ to nature

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🗞️ Driving the news: The European Commission’s proposed €1.816 trillion multiannual budget has dropped dedicated funding for biodiversity, prompting warnings from campaigners that Europe’s nature protection could be sidelined in favor of industrial competitiveness
• The plan merges existing programs, such as LIFE, into a new €409 billion “Competitiveness Fund” without specific earmarks for biodiversity or water resilience, despite earlier commitments to ramp up biodiversity spending to 10% of the budget by 2027

🔭 The context: The EU has pledged to halt biodiversity loss and restore degraded ecosystems under its Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and global Kunming-Montreal biodiversity targets
• Yet, the bloc already faces an estimated €37 billion annual biodiversity funding gap, with many initiatives under-resourced
• The Commission argues its new budget embeds sustainability horizontally, applying “do no significant harm” principles across all spending
• Critics counter that without dedicated funding or clear tracking, biodiversity risks being deprioritized compared to climate and industrial projects presented as “green”

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Biodiversity underpins ecosystem services critical to climate resilience, food security, and health
• Weakening financial support threatens progress toward Europe’s restoration goals, undermines global leadership on nature protection, and risks breaching international commitments
• Failure to allocate adequate funds to biodiversity may also exacerbate the continent’s water stress and soil degradation challenges, particularly in vulnerable regions such as southern Europe

⏭️ What's next: EU member states and the European Parliament are expected to scrutinize and negotiate the budget over the coming months, with NGOs urging governments to restore biodiversity earmarks and adopt robust monitoring to ensure funds deliver genuine environmental benefits
• Calls are growing for explicit water resilience financing and greater transparency to avoid “greenwashing” industrial competitiveness measures
• Final budget adoption is targeted for late 2025, in time for implementation from 2026 onwards

💬 One quote: “This is a devastating blow for Europe’s nature and its citizens,” — Anouk Puymartin of Birdlife Europe. “Biodiversity is losing its place in the EU budget with no dedicated funding or clear prioritisation”

📈 One stat: In the current EU budget, biodiversity was allocated 7.5% of annual spending in 2024, set to rise to 10% by 2027—a target dropped entirely in the new proposal

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