Gas extraction in Groningen was high on the political agenda in 2013. On Tuesday, the committee of inquiry interviewed three former MPs to get an idea of the role of the House of Representatives in the file.
Jan Vos (PvdA) had to regularly “balance on the edge” due to coalition interest, he said. At that time, his party ruled together with the VVD. In 2014, the PvdA’s position began to diverge from that of the cabinet, but Vos did not want to risk a cabinet crisis.
In January 2014, then Minister Henk Kamp (Economic Affairs) decided to reduce gas production. He proposed a maximum of 42.5 billion cubic meters for that year.
The debate on this decision has been “very exciting,” Vos said. The House of Representatives had just heard that gas production in the previous year had been significantly higher than expected. This is a record amount since 1981, when the regulator had already advised to reduce gas production.
Vos said he was “furious”. In the debate, he said he was “outrageous”. “The only extra step I could have taken was to send the minister home. We weren’t prepared to do that.”
His PvdA faction wanted gas extraction for 2014 to be further reduced from 42.5 billion cubic meters. But “the sense of urgency was not so great” that the party found it necessary to “create a crisis,” Vos said.
‘PvdA wanted to reduce gas extraction, but never gave up’
The 42.5 billion cubic meters were set up at the request of the then PvdA Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem (Finance). Kamp preferred to bet on 40 billion cubic meters, Dijsselbloem admitted during his interrogation last week. Vos wasn’t aware of it at the time, he said.
René Leegte (VVD) had the feeling at the time that PvdA was “in a split”. “My colleague (Vos, editor’s note) wanted gas production to decrease, but he never put his teeth in it,” said the former parliamentarian during questioning by the commission. Vos said in his interrogation that the VVD was more “on the pumping line”.
Vos says he has exerted as much pressure as possible on the government for years to reduce gas production. Leegte also stressed that he had called for a minor extraction since 2014. However, both MPs supported the cabinet’s decisions.
‘I haven’t been laughed at yet’
The commission of inquiry also questioned a former parliamentarian who was in opposition at the time. Liesbeth van Tongeren (GroenLinks) and her PvdD colleague were the first to vigorously oppose the government’s decisions.
In February 2013, he called on the cabinet to follow the advice of the regulator. He filed a motion to reduce gas extraction by 40 percent. “I just didn’t laugh out loud, but I came close enough,” he told the committee.
In the years that followed, he tried to keep the file under control. It was “incredibly complicated,” he said. The information that the toilet shared with the Chamber was extremely complex. When he asked parliamentary questions, he “always encountered a concrete wall of answers”. Kamp kept saying that lowering was not an option, because people would be left in the cold.
“The Chamber could and should have received more information and the minister should have been able to give it and know it,” Van Tongeren reflected. With his statement he referred to the fact that previous interrogations showed that at that time the ministry actually had more information on security of supply.
Vos and Void also acknowledge that the information was not complete
Vos is also angry about this development. “This opened my eyes. This means that we have simply been discussing security of supply for years, when it was actually nonsense.”
Vos is satisfied with the House’s informative position. He sometimes he “can’t see the forest for the trees”. Leegte and Van Tongeren were more critical. They both pointed out that the dossier was too large for a member of parliament. Van Tongeren had to settle for one and a half employees, while he followed several ministries.
The commission also asked members of parliament how they look back on their time as spokesperson on the gas extraction file.
“Gas production would not have declined without the House of Representatives uniting and forming a front,” said Vos, who looks back largely positively on the role of parliament. On the other hand, Leegte would have liked to see the House collaborate more and help each other by sharing knowledge.
“As a member of Parliament, but also together with the entire House, I have failed in this dossier. We have not been able to make enough changes over time as the supreme body of our democratic constitutional state,” said Van Tongeren.
–
