A 36-vote margin shaped by national industry lines
The Nature Restoration Law — the EU's flagship biodiversity legislation — passed plenary on 12 July 2023 with 336 votes for and 300 against. A shift of just 19 MEPs would have killed it. The country-level vote data reveals that the fault line was not simply left vs right, but ran along national economic interests — particularly forestry.
Germany, the largest delegation, split almost perfectly: 93 for, 90 against, 0 abstentions. Italy divided 53-80 against. Poland voted 17-80 against. But the most striking pattern was in Finland and Sweden — countries with major forestry sectors and the most active forestry lobby presence in Brussels.
The forestry lobby connection
In the months before the vote, Finnish and Swedish forestry industry groups held at least 26 meetings with Commission officials specifically about nature restoration. WWF (29 meetings) and the European Environmental Bureau (23) lobbied on the other side, but the environmental NGOs were engaging at a more general level while the forestry groups had a specific, defensive agenda.
The voting alignment is stark. Every Finnish MEP from EPP and ECR-aligned groups voted against. Every Finnish Green and S&D MEP voted for. In Sweden, the pattern was even more extreme: EPP members Arba Kokalari, Tomas Tobé, Jessica Polfjärd, and Sara Skyttedal all voted against — as did Renew member Charlie Weimers, who has a 54.9% rebellion rate overall.
The question journalists should ask
Henna Virkkunen — the Finnish EPP MEP who voted against the Nature Restoration Law in July 2023 — was subsequently nominated and confirmed as European Commissioner. She now oversees digital and technology policy, not environment. But her vote record on this file is part of her political profile. GovLens tracks every MEP's full voting history — searchable by procedure, date, and political group.