A general pardon against these so-called PAS journalists is therefore not an option. This is what the State Attorney’s Office, which assists the State in judicial proceedings, writes in a letter to the Council of Ministers which was also sent to the House of Representatives on Friday. PAS journalists are entrepreneurs, mostly cattle ranchers, from whom the government did not require a nitrogen permit for a long time, until the State Council ruled in 2019 that such a permit is indeed necessary. With that, their economic activities, through no fault of their own, suddenly became illegal.
Because of this history, Cabinet and House consider the more than 3,600 PAS journalists as the hardest-hit group in the nitrogen dossier. The previous government had promised to solve the problem and to tolerate the illegal companies for the time being. But now more and more “PAS reporters” are getting into trouble with the courts because their permits are successfully challenged. The provincial authorities are therefore forced to impose sanctions anyway.
That is why the cabinet is looking for a way to organize it quickly. However, the State Attorney sees little room for this, at least not until the Cabinet can demonstrate concretely that it is doing enough to reduce nitrogen deposition in vulnerable natural areas. According to the council, the cabinet’s request to ‘waiver execution’ has no chance: ‘In a general sense, it is difficult to follow up on. Not only because natural values are protected under the European Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, and the application of EU law must be effective and dissuasive among other things, but also in light of the (extremely) overloaded state in which many designated natural values are found.’
The state attorney also advises the cabinet not to continue the trial in court. The fact that in most cases these are relatively small farmers with low emissions is not a decisive reason. Many nature reserves are so overloaded with nitrogen that any further deposits are of legal significance. “Although a PAS reporter’s testimony is generally limited, this single fact has thus far offered little solace in the various courts.”
There are only two ways to help a farmer get a permit. One: by demonstrating that the farmer in question really emits so little that the surrounding nature is not further damaged. Two: demonstrating that other measures are being taken to spare the surrounding natural areas. ‘Furthermore, the more measures that have actually been taken for the natural values involved and will be taken with certainty in the near future, the higher the chances that the enforcement can be successfully reversed.’
To help PAS journalists, farmers elsewhere will then have to stop broadcasting. The government has recently made a short-term commitment buy several thousand “peak magazines”. The government is willing to pay a lot for it. The success of that strategy should become clear in the coming year.
Since the cabinet would like to help PAS journalists as quickly as possible, it also asked the state attorney whether the execution could simply be halted, for example by declaring PAS journalists’ broadcasts as “low priority”. The State Attorney sees no substantive or legal objections, referring to previous State Council rulings: ‘Executive policy should not aim to never take action against low priority violations.’
