The European Parliament has voted to pass the EU's flagship law to restore nature, salvaging the environmental measures which centre-right politicians had campaigned to kill off.
MEPs adopted the legal proposal with 336 votes in favour, 300 against, and 13 abstentions.
MEPs and member countries will now negotiate the final text, aiming for a deal before EU Parliament elections in 2024.
The legislation seeks to restore the health of Europe's natural habitats, more than 80% of which are deemed to be in poor health.
The largest group in the parliament, the European People's Party, had instructed its MEPs to reject the law outright.
That is despite Ursula von der Leyen - the head of the European Commission, which proposed the nature law - being from the EPP, putting her at odds with her own party.
However, the five Fine Gael MEPs in that group defied that instruction.
The head of that delegation, Sean Kelly, has said a balance must be struck, adding that he "will be supporting amendments to the Nature Restoration Law that will deliver on a better deal for the agricultural community. For this reason, I cannot support rejecting the proposal outright".
"I support the inclusion of adequate funding provisions that must accompany these new targets and funding must be separate from what is already provided under the CAP."
All 13 Irish MEPs have indicated that they would like to see some form of Nature Restoration Law passed.
The law would be one of the EU's biggest pieces of green legislation, requiring countries to introduce measures restoring nature on a fifth of their land and sea by 2030.
The provision related to rewetting in the law has been removed from the final text agreed by the parliament.
Rewetting measures had provoked significant controversy across the EU, including in Ireland.
However, restoration targets remain in place and so rewetting would be considered a pre-requisite of achieving such goals.
Nevertheless, the removal of Article 9 from the proposed law has been strongly criticised by many. The amendment to remove it was tabled by the right-wing ECR group.
The process will now move to negotiations with member states. Member states may insist on rewetting measures being included in the final law. This process is known as trilogues and will likely take a number of months.
MEP Mick Wallace, a member of the Parliament's Environment Committee, said the final text was "absolutely gutted" and represented a "shell" of the original proposal from the European Commission.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Green Party MEP Ciarán Cuffe, welcomed the new law but said it was a "bittersweet victory" as it was a watered down version of previous proposals.
He said that he did not see any evidence in the law that there would be any compulsory action on private landowners, but in the weeks ahead there will be room on both sides to accommodate any concerns that come up.
Read more:
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Divided opinions on the EU's Nature Restoration Law
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Additional reporting Reuters
