After weeks of intense lobbying against the plan, the legislature still supported the general outlines of a European Commission bill in a razor-thin 324-312 vote with 12 abstentions to send it onward to negotiations with the member states.

The plan is a key part of the EU's vaunted European Green Deal that seeks to establish the world's most ambitious climate and biodiversity targets and make the bloc the global point of reference on all climate issues.

The vote "marks a significant milestone in our commitment to fulfilling the Green Deal," said MEP Mohammed Chahim of the center-left Socialists and Democrats group.

The plans proposed by the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, set binding restoration targets for specific habitats and species, with the aim to cover at least 20% of the region's land and sea areas by 2030.

Despite the staunch opposition of the legislature's biggest group, the European People's Party, the plan survived in the highly anticipated vote at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

The Christian Democrats' EPP opposition also highlighted the fundamental struggle in Europe on how to deal with climate issues. Despite the succession of droughts, floods and heat waves increasingly hitting countless areas in Europe, the EPP wanted to hit the pause button on such environmental action and concentrate on economic competitiveness first over the next five years.