ANP extension
ANNOUNCEMENTS••Edited
Minister van der Wal for Nature and Nitrogen “has no idea when the country can be unblocked again and there will be more room for nitrogen again”. He said it in a debate with the House of Representatives on the agricultural budget.
The cabinet is doing everything it can to rapidly reduce nitrogen emissions, he said. But to achieve this, we first need to talk to farmers and companies and it’s impossible to say how fast that will go.
The debate on the budget was not so much about resources, but rather about what needs to be done now to get out of the nitrogen impasse. The Cabinet previously announced it would allocate billions to, among other things, ‘peak contributors’, i.e. companies that cause a lot of nitrogen precipitation in nature, accelerated approach. Companies will be asked if they want to stop, move or make more sustainable.
No hard terms
Agriculture Minister Adema, who succeeded his party colleague Staghouwer in October, wants to negotiate an agreement with farmers’ organizations who want to continue their activity.
An agreement on this has not yet been reached, he acknowledged. There is “no hard deadline”, but it could be March or April, she answered questions from GroenLinks MP Bromet, who thinks it will take a long time.
Adema did not deny, but in turn said that if you “almost agree” after months of negotiations, it is worth continuing and not setting a date.
Restore nature
Agricultural and industrial businesses in the vicinity of Natura 2000 areas are required by the Cabinet to largely or completely reduce nitrogen emissions to allow nature to recover. Farms near those protected areas will receive a one-time offer to stop. It affects 2000 to 3000 entrepreneurs.
The nitrogen space this generates will be used to legalize so-called PAS detectors as quickly as possible. These are farmers who, due to an illustrious sentence of the Council of State in 2019, do not have the permit through no fault of their own. This can also create space for construction projects.
Large parts of the House, including PvdA, GroenLinks, the BBB and the VVD, have made it clear again that they are against Rijkswaterstaat buying backstage farms to arrange nitrogen space for Schiphol and the widening of highways. That space should first go to PAS journalists and the construction industry, according to the political parties.
“Terrible Situation”
The majority in the House now wants the cabinet to seek an urgent opinion from the state’s attorney on the action against the PAS journalists. In Overijssel, until recently tolerated PAS journalists are in trouble: the judge recently ruled that the province must stop tolerating, as a result of which fines are imposed on farmers.
Van der Wal was moved when she spoke of her visits to some of these farming families and described it as a dire situation for them. BBB leader Van der Plas called it unbelievable and called it “crocodile tears”. Van der Wal, in turn, thought her “humanness” was questioned. Van der Plas then said that she didn’t mean it personally, but was talking about the toilet as a whole of her.
