“This shows that the European Commission is dogmatic in the climate issue and that this does not help citizens and companies in the EU and in the Netherlands,” writes the VVD leader.
His CDA colleague Esther de Lange finds the letter incomprehensible. “The timing is fuel to the fire,” she says. “As a European Commissioner, you also have to know when you are not saying anything for a while. This unnecessarily drives the parties apart.” The letter came just before the top of the Dutch cabinet started to consider the results of the provincial elections.
According to nitrogen minister Van der Wal, the letter was a response to an earlier letter in which she had explained the government’s nitrogen approach.
Remarkably stricter
MEP Peter van Dalen of the ChristenUnie is also not pleased with Sinkevicius’ action. “Think along, not against!” SGP member Bert-Jan Ruissen speaks of a ‘strange letter’.
Michiel Hoogeveen, who is in the European Parliament for JA21, says he has again asked questions to the European Commissioner. He finds it remarkable that the European Commissioner had previously adopted what he considered a ‘milder tone’ about Dutch nitrogen policy.
Earlier today, both Van der Wal and her agricultural colleague Piet Adema said they were ‘shocked’, not only by the leak of the letter, but also by its tone and content.
Sinkevičius writes that the nitrogen precipitation in all vulnerable nature areas must be reduced to such an extent by 2030 that nature will no longer deteriorate. The cabinet aims to achieve this in three-quarters of the nature reserves.
The European Commissioner also seems to have critical comments on other crucial elements of the nitrogen approach, such as the legalization of the so-called PAS detectors. Those farmers are legally stuck, after the judge ruled in 2019 that they are not allowed to emit nitrogen without a permit. Van der Wal says he understands the unrest this causes for farmers and is therefore disappointed that the letter has ended up on the street.
She did not yet venture to provide a further explanation of the letter, but Adema did read that Brussels may not consider the Dutch approach to go far enough. Let alone that there would be room to slow down a bit in response to the huge profit in the Provincial Council elections of the BoerBurgerBeweging, which placed opposition to the nitrogen policy at the center of its successful campaign.
