News Nitrogen Debate
Nitrogen: Room doesn't make it difficult for Van der Wal
The House of Representatives did not make it difficult for the Minister for Nature and Nitrogen Christianne van der Wal (VVD) yesterday (Thursday, June 23) in the debate about the cabinet's nitrogen plans. The coalition and the left-wing parties support her.
A number of political groups, such as the BoerBurgerBeweging, SGP, JA21 and PVV were critical, but the House as a whole did not cause the minister any problems. There was harsher criticism of the too vague perspective plans of agriculture minister Henk Staghouwer (CU), according to a broad majority of the House of Representatives.
Good nature, still problem with KDW
VVD Member of Parliament Thom van Campen did not bite through, but did raise a legally interesting point in Van der Wal's plans. A number of MPs had referred to a recent technical briefing by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL). In it, the PBL had said that although the critical deposition value for nitrogen (KDW), which the cabinet takes as normative, does say something about the burden on a nature reserve, the so-called 'conservation status' of an area can still be good and also restorative. . Not much going on, you would say, despite the fact that the KDW is considerably exceeded. It is something for example the emeritus professors Han Lindeboom and Johan Sanders of the D66 focus group Nitrogen also argue. Minister Van der Wal also acknowledged this.
'No legal alternative to KDW'
At the same time, she said that she continues to judge nature for exceedances of the KDW, because in her opinion there are no alternatives to this benchmark from a legal point of view (the KDW is again related to certain critical species that should be present in a certain area).
The minister did not clarify why exactly the KDW is so indispensable. The impression was left that the concept is necessary to maintain a legal construct with the accompanying calculation method.
PVV Member of Parliament Edgar Mulder therefore raised the question of whether the cabinet does not run the risk of a PAS debacle number 2. Minister Van der Wal firmly denied that this is the case. Mulder agreed with a number of smaller factions. A majority in the House of Representatives was satisfied with the minister's answer. On the sidelines of this discussion, it emerged that the curtain had recently fallen for six PAS reporters because the minister was unable to fulfill the promise of support.
Unclear how area map will change
There was a lot of criticism from the House on the card that the minister had presented at the same time as her plans. Van der Wal said in response that the map should mainly be seen as indicative. She also said that the water and climate statements have not yet been incorporated into the map. This left the House unclear in which direction the area map could change. Including the Agrifacts Foundation indicated that the map that has now been published is too far-reaching, but it could also become even more far-reaching after processing all the assignments.
In the course of the debate, Van der Wal made it clear that it is also the turn of other sectors to reduce nitrogen, but she did not come up with concrete tasks or objectives.
Klaas van der Horst
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