Commission does not want a counter-proposal to the biodiversity initiative
Published: Monday, Oct 30th 2023, 15:10
Updated At: Tuesday, Oct 31st 2023, 00:54
العودة إلى البث المباشر
There should be no indirect counter-proposal to the biodiversity initiative. This is the insistence of the responsible committee of the Council of States. The majority believes that sufficient areas of special importance for biodiversity can be secured with the current law.
With 7 to 5 votes, the Committee for Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy of the Council of States (Urek-S) maintained that the indirect counter-proposal to the biodiversity initiative should not be accepted, as the parliamentary services announced on Monday. Like the original, the majority now also does not want the simplified counter-proposal.
Save what can be saved
The National Council, on the other hand, insisted in September on including the concerns of the biodiversity initiative with amendments to the Nature and Cultural Heritage Protection Act, despite the No vote by the Council of States. With a willingness to compromise with agriculture and also with the small chamber, it wanted to save what could be saved with a simplified counterproposal.
The Urek of the National Council wants to focus on the networking of ecological areas for the benefit of animal migrations and improvements in biodiversity areas. However, it does not want new legal regulations for agriculture. For procedural reasons, the specific bill was not yet available in the National Council.
The biodiversity initiative wants to oblige the federal government and now also the cantons to protect and conserve biodiversity and the landscape. The Federal Council decided to oppose the initiative with an indirect counter-proposal.
The Federal Council decided to oppose the initiative with an indirect counter-proposal. Among other things, it wanted to stipulate that biodiversity and protected areas should account for a total of 17 percent of Switzerland's land area.
No to initiative
The National Council deleted this figure during the first round of deliberations a year ago. It was better to set qualitative targets, it thought at the time. Now it's the turn of the Council of States again - in a new composition. If it does not support the counter-proposal a second time, it will be off the table.
On the biodiversity initiative itself, the Urek of the Council of States proposes a No vote by 9 votes to 4. The National Council decided the No recommendation to the initiative already in September 2022.
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