Twenty EU countries, including Italy, are behind schedule with their national nature restoration plans

Brussels – Brussels is still awaiting the national plans through which Member States are required to translate the European Nature Restoration Law into concrete measures. By the deadline of 1 September, yesterday, the deadline set by EU Regulation 2024/1991, twenty countries had not yet submitted the draft of their national nature restoration plan to the European Commission. For now, the European Commission is taking a collaborative approach: “The regulation is new and complex,” and the aim, as officials in Brussels explained, is “to help the capitals complete the work rather than immediately launch infringement proceedings.” The seven countries that met yesterday’s deadline are Austria, Bulgaria, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. 

The Nature Restoration Act is one of the key elements of European biodiversity policy. The regulation requires Member States to take restoration measures across at least 20 per cent of the EU’s terrestrial and marine areas by 2030, aiming to cover all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. Furthermore, the EU has set specific targets for 2030, including restoring at least 30 per cent of habitats that are not in good condition. The text covers terrestrial and marine ecosystems, rivers, urban areas, agricultural land and forests, as well as the protection of pollinators.

 National plans are therefore the instrument through which governments must set out where to take action, what measures to adopt, within what timeframe, and with what financial resources. They will also need to quantify the areas to be restored, identify the areas potentially affected and explain how the measures will be coordinated with existing policies, ranging from agriculture and water management to climate, forestry, and fisheries. 

Italy is among the countries that have failed to meet the deadline, and the delay is also linked to the public consultation process. The Ministry of the Environment, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and with the support of ISPRA, has launched a consultation to gather input from members of the public and stakeholders. The Italian timetable envisaged concluding the process and submitting the plan to the Commission just before the deadline: the phase dedicated to drafting the final consultation report ended on 10 July, while the subsequent phase envisaged submitting the plan by 1 September. 

Looking at other larger countries, France is finalising its own plan, known as “Agir pour restaurer la nature“. The French government organised an initial phase of public consultation as early as 2025, and scheduled a further round of public consultation for summer 2026. The plan is also undergoing an environmental assessment and requires coordination between various ministries. With just a few months to go before the deadline, the French Senate also reported that inter-ministerial discussions on the plan’s content had not yet been concluded and that a definitive estimate of the costs of its implementation was not yet available. 

In Germany, the Ministry for the Environment had already presented a draft of the plan for public consultation in April. The document is therefore at an advanced stage, but Berlin failed to meet yesterday’s deadline for submitting it to Brussels. The German process also involves other ministries and the Länder, and the country’s federal structure makes collecting and harmonising the necessary data particularly complex. 

Poland is, however, still working on the plan under the responsibility of the Ministry of Climate and the Environment. The process has included a pre-consultation phase and the involvement of other ministries, in particular the Ministry of Agriculture. The complexity also stems from the need to coordinate restoration measures with the interests of agricultural and forestry management. 

Spain is a different case and submitted its draft to the European Commission on 31 August, one day before the deadline. Brussels is therefore now assessing the Spanish plan. 

The Berlaymont Building emphasises that many Member States “are simultaneously grappling with technical challenges, the need for coordination across sectors and administrations, and stakeholder engagement processes.” For this reason, at least at this stage, the approach remains to support Member States in finalising their plans, to achieving credible and implementable strategies for 2030 and beyond.