Background Nitrogen mood
Henk or Piet, the Minister of LNV is not given any space
Minister of LNV Piet Adema must have felt almost like a failing manager in a blockchain chain this week. He should have ensured that the latest orders from the European Commission were translated into agricultural practice in the Netherlands without further deviations, but he did not. Chain failure, so. In our weekly section Nitrogen Mood, we give an impression of the nitrogen crisis in our own way.
The newly trained minister thought he still had some room for policy of his own and could still be a little lenient to farmers, but with the help of leaky officials and 'friend' Member of Parliament Tjeerd de Groot of D66, he was brought back into line .
Too late and too late again
All that remained for Adema was to apologize for having informed the House too late and incorrectly. Too late because a civil servant had not put a letter on his desk in time (but that is Adema's responsibility). Wrong because Adema had thought for all kinds of reasons that it could wait a while after that, but then the correspondence with the European Commissioner for the Environment was leaked. Minister of Agriculture is definitely the least desirable job in the current cabinet, especially with another minister next to him, who has much more to gain in terms of position and political weight. Adema doesn't have it much better than predecessor Staghouwer. This week's images showed that the LNV office requires a lot of humility.
Colleague can do more
Colleague Christianne van der Wal, from Nitrogen and Nature, is allowed more than Adema. That is noticeable in everything. And as if that wasn't bad enough, both also manage a department where the civil servants do what they want. Adema pretends not to notice. In the debate with the House of Representatives this week, he even said that 'only this minister is responsible for what happens at the ministry'. Although a minister is politically responsible for his civil servants, this statement is demonstrably incorrect, because there is also a Mrs Van der Wal.
Annoyance CU
Whatever Adema thinks, within the ChristenUnie the annoyance is increasing about what is happening at LNV. The current Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality has now been dealt with by coalition partners for the third time. If he were to be 'peeped' again, then the measure could just be full for the game. It is a given in all of this that the Netherlands has a bad reputation with the European Commission, but that is not a direct result of polluting farmers, as is often stated. The Netherlands has promised to meet certain environmental targets in Europe, but these have been out of reach for years.
Not a farmer, but bad legislation
Mainly because of politics and because of the poor quality of legislation in the Netherlands. The Council of State regularly warns against this, but it is not getting much better. The best example of such flawed legislation is the PAS, which was shot down by the Council of State in June 2021. One of the inventors (although not an author) of this is now Frans Timmermans' right-hand man and encourages the Netherlands to do better in the field of nitrogen. Johan Vollenbroek, among others, repeatedly demonstrates that newer legislation is little better.
No coordination in reporting
The government is also not helping itself by sending all kinds of alarming, but at the same time weak or even incorrectly substantiated reports to Brussels about, for example, water quality and nature. For example, it cannot be the case that agriculture is held responsible for pollution from the cities. The jumble of reporting lines towards the European capital must almost lead to stumbling. There are at least four different lines for agriculture and nature alone. Few politicians in the Netherlands seem to be concerned about this.
Rather minor issues
Small problems are solved everywhere. Minister Harbers expresses his reservations about the purchase of unused nitrogen emission rights by Schiphol, but apparently will wait until the airport has its affairs in order before passing a final judgment on this. Minister Van der Wal is working on the nitrogen legislation and colleague Adema is busy with a possible agricultural agreement. Last week there were sessions again. According to the latest reports, progress is being made at the main table, while the process is stagnant at the side tables. The question is whether this will be enough for the interviewees to be able to declare a success in a few weeks' time.
Klaas van der Horst
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