EU will propose new law to make nature restoration legally binding in the EU

CCB • March 23, 2021

Nature as we know it is heading towards extinction. And it’s because of human activity. Logging, intensive agriculture and overfishing have pushed one million animal and plant species to the point where they’re hanging by a thread. The European Commission will propose a new law to make nature restoration legally binding for EU countries. But as it stands, there is no definition of what this will actually mean.

Right now, the Commission is asking the public to give their opinion on what nature restoration across the EU should look like, which is open for feedback until the 5th of April 2021.

BirdLife Europe, the European Environmental Bureau and WWF European Policy Office, have now launched #RestoreNature – a campaign demanding to restore nature across Europe now. [1] The message to the European Commission is simple: Only through meaningful, transformative change at land and sea can we bring back the biodiversity we desperately need. It will help us to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis, and prevent the future spread of diseases.

Through the #RestoreNature campaign citizens from both within and outside the EU can demand that the EU develops a good law that can help reverse the fate of nature in Europe, and beyond and start giving land, sea and water back to nature.

This EU law can be a real game-changer for people and nature, but only if it is grounded in science. Failing that, it risks ending up an empty green-washing tool.

This is about the survival of our precious wetlands, peatlands, grasslands, forests, floodplains, rivers, and oceans. But it is also about our climate, our health, and the survival of humankind. Protecting what is left is needed but won’t cut it. We also need to bring nature back. We must #RestoreNature now. Our survival depends on it.

CCB joined the campaign [2] on its social media pages: “We are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction with species disappearing at more than 100 times the natural rate, right before our own eyes, with disastrous consequences for our climate, our health, and our wellbeing”.

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CCB is looking for a Network Officer to join our team at the CCB International Secretariat

By CCB • April 9, 2025
Coalition Clean Baltic – CCB is a politically independent network, uniting 27 environmental non-profit organizations, as well as partners and experts from 11 countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The main goal of CCB is to promote the protection and improvement of the environment and natural resources of the Baltic Sea region by encouraging new and constructive approaches and engaging people to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. CCB Secretariat is based in Uppsala, Sweden.

Attacks on NGOs: 570+ Organisations Join Forces to Defend Civil Society

By CCB • April 7, 2025
European civil society organisations (CSOs) are currently facing an attack coming from certain Members of the European Parliament. Spearheaded by some MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) and by far-right groups, this attack resorts to misleading arguments to fabricate a scandal. This portrayal has been amplified through the media, with notable exceptions of articles that attempted to clarify this misleading narrative. European CSOs are crucial to ensure the voices of citizens from different parts of Europe are heard in the EU institutions. Attacks against civil society are unfortunately not new and are exacerbated by this harmful idea. Furthermore, for-profit corporate lobbying is through the roof when compared to non-profit advocacy. In 2024, the 50 corporations with the largest lobbying budgets collectively spent nearly €200 million on lobbying the EU alone (66% more than in 2015). Comparing this to the funding environmental NGOs receive under the LIFE programme - €15.6 million annually of a €700 million yearly budget - truly shows the weakness of this ‘scandal’. This is why over 570 civil society organisations from 40 countries, including all EU Member States, have joined forces to call on those in power to act now and ensure that civil society is adequately funded and enabled to share our crucial perspectives . In this statement, we address: The source of this false narrative; Inaccurate claims made about how CSOs obtain and use funding; Why it’s paramount that CSOs receive sufficient funding; The need for civil dialogue to enable CSOs participation. Democracy is about the right of citizens to be collectively heard for building an inclusive society and a shared European future; properly funded independent CSOs are a crucial tool for that. We call on decision-makers to ensure civil society organisations can thrive and play their role in interacting with policy-makers in order to have a more fully informed decision-making process. Read the full statement here . -END Civil Society Europe (CSE) is the coordination of civil society organisations at EU level. Through its membership, CSE unites EU-level membership-based organisations that reach out to millions of people active in or supported by not-for-profits and civil society organisations across the EU. CSE was created by several civil society organisations as a follow-up to the European Year of Citizens and was established as an international not-for-profit under Belgian law in 2016. Since then, it has become the point of reference for EU institutions on transversal issues concerning civil dialogue and civic space.