It is up to the provinces in the nitrogen dossier. That is what Prime Minister Rutte and Deputy Prime Ministers Kaag and Hoekstra said last night after the days-long crisis consultations in the cabinet. But those provinces say they are bound hand and foot. “Saying that we can get to work, that is simply not true.”
Mirjam Sterk is a deputy on behalf of the CDA in Utrecht. She is eager to get started. “But we don’t have the tools to make plans with farmers.” Peak loaders? “We don’t know who they are yet.” Move farms? “No arrangements yet.” Innovations? Not sure if they will hold up in court. So ‘accelerating’, as Prime Minister Rutte promised, is impossible, according to Sterk.
Prime Minister Rutte made some announcements last night after days of negotiations. First, the cabinet has not fallen. Secondly: there will be a ‘pause’ in nitrogen policy. After that break, negotiations on nitrogen will take place again, because the CDA wants to get rid of the agreements in the coalition agreement. Until then, the ball is in the provinces’ court, which, according to Prime Minister Rutte, must accelerate.
Time is getting tighter to get it right.
But that is not possible at all, agrees CDA deputy Eddy van Hijum in Overijssel. “Provinces want to get to work, but the government must first create frameworks.” Like his Utrecht colleague Sterk, he points to financial frameworks and rules. “Meanwhile, it is also not clear what should happen with the provincial plans that must be submitted before July 1. Should the old or new colleges do that?”
In Utrecht probably the old colleges. Because BBB leader Anton Verleun may be able to form very quickly; July 1 ‘we’re not going to make it’. “A big problem,” he says. Like Mirjam Sterk, he is very concerned about nitrogen policy. “We hardly have peak loaders in Utrecht, but we do need clear rules from The Hague.”
Shocked by Rutte’s words
Confusion everywhere in the provincial houses. And that while Prime Minister Rutte said last night that the provinces ‘have all the frameworks they need’. Much to Mirjam Sterk’s surprise. “It does shock me a bit. Yes, it is clear how much nitrogen we have to reduce. But saying that we can already get started, that is simply not true.”
While the cabinet was busy with crisis consultations last week, provinces were already discussing possible solutions among themselves. The Utrecht deputy Sterk tells Nieuwsuur that (part of) the provinces may come up with a joint battle plan about nitrogen after all coalition formations. “We have already developed a number of proposals. But you would expect that from the government.”
Meanwhile, the question arises: who rules the country? And will it be 2030 or 2035? “Last year it was already said that we had to reach 2030,” says Sterk. “If all the instruments had been on the table then we would have been a lot further now. Time is getting tighter to get it done properly.”
