LONDON — Britain has it in for its bats and newts — and Brussels is alarmed.
A confidential EU report, seen by POLITICO, warned that U.K. plans to strip away nature protections in pursuit of economic growth could put the British government in breach of the Brexit trade deal.
The measures, part of the U.K’s new planning bill, are meant to make it easier for developers to build new homes, roads, railways or pylons — but could fall afoul of “non-regression” clauses signed by Boris Johnson when the then-prime minister took Britain out of the bloc, the report said.
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“The revision of environmental planning rules to facilitate building new developments is potentially in breach of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement,” the report said.
