The European Union needs legally binding measures to protect nature and biodiversity, the European Parliament said on Wednesday, warning that previous voluntary plans have failed to deliver.

The EU's executive Commission last year published a plan to protect biodiversity, and has set out goals to halve the use of chemical pesticides, cut fertiliser use by 20% and expand protected areas of land and sea by 2030.

The European Parliament on Wednesday approved a report calling for the targets to be fixed in law and backed up by measures to enforce them.

"We have a planetary crisis going on right now, not only in the European Union, of climate and biodiversity," said Spanish lawmaker Cesar Luena, who wrote the report. [...]

Artículo publicado en www.reuters.com.