A major European Union plan to combat climate change and better protect the natural environment in the 27 countries was postponed indefinitely on Monday, underscoring how farmers’ protests sweeping the continent are shaping politics ahead of EU parliamentary elections in June.

Member states were supposed to give final approval to the bill on Monday after months of wade through a maze of EU institutions. But what was supposed to be just a rubber stamp may now be on hold for good.

“(The program) is currently in a very difficult situation and with the upcoming European elections it will not be easy to get out of this situation,” Dutch Climate Minister Rob Jetten said. The Nature Recovery Plan is a key part of the EU’s European Green Deal, which aims to set the world’s most ambitious climate and biodiversity targets and make the EU a global reference point on all climate issues.

The bill aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, requiring short-term changes and sacrifices from all sectors of society in order to benefit within a generation.

“If you want to achieve climate neutrality, you also have to look at the broader perspective of protecting biodiversity and enhancing Europe’s natural environment,” Jetton said, stressing that such initiatives are necessary.

Even if the plan encounters difficulties in the EU’s complex approval process, the watered-down version should sail through the final vote.

Under EU voting rules, a qualified majority representing 15 of the 27 member states and 65% of the population is required, a threshold long thought to be safe until Monday.

“It looks like we no longer have a qualified majority because… Hungary changed its vote. We have to understand why they did that,” said Alain Malone, Belgium’s regional climate minister who chaired a meeting of EU environment ministers.

The change of heart comes after weeks of protests by farmers across the EU, who argue that as war breaks out in Russia, food security and self-sufficiency are once again vital and a raft of environmental laws governing the way they work are pushing them further toward bankruptcy. The war in Ukraine intensifies.

“It is very important to maintain the flexibility of member states,” Hungarian Environment Minister Aniko Raisz said on Monday. Asked whether her country could change its stance again, Reitz said she “cannot make any promises” while underlining the importance of the agricultural sector across Europe.

“We have to be realistic and we have to keep all these areas in mind,” she said.

Monday’s postponement was the EU’s latest concession in response to protests that have disrupted the daily lives of tens of millions of EU citizens and cost businesses tens of millions of euros in traffic delays. Other measures include shelving legislation on tighter pesticide rules, easing inspections and controls on farms and requiring some land to be left fallow.

Under the plan, member states must meet recovery targets for specific habitats and species, covering at least 20% of the region’s land and sea areas by 2030. But disputes over exemptions and flexibility clauses that allow member states to circumvent the rules have dogged negotiations.

The bill passed parliament last month by 329 votes to 275, with 24 abstentions, after the center-right Christian Democratic European People’s Party decided to vote against it. Environmentalists and Greens are ecstatic, seeing this as the final stumbling block.

While droughts, floods and heatwaves have ravaged much of Europe, any delay in voting would mean such environmental action aimed at protecting economic competitiveness could be put on hold.

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