Background Nitrogen Mood
Route Agricultural Agreement paved with unrest
Clarity, certainty and peace, that is what the intended Agricultural Agreement should bring, according to Agriculture Minister Piet Adema. The website of the Agricultural Agreement indicates this in any case. The road to it is paved with ambiguities, uncertainties and unrest. On time and the consultation kettle also boils over quite a bit. In our weekly section Nitrogen Mood, we give an impression of the nitrogen crisis in our own way.
The many new plot twists have now absorbed almost the entire attention of the minister. He even cancels much-needed consultations with European colleagues and members of the Commission. A little while longer and he will only be a minister of agreements, which keep slipping out of his fingers.
Talk marathon
It is a small consolation for him that his colleagues do not have it easy either. The House of Representatives debate on a Transition Fund for the rural area to be introduced quickly was also not an egg for colleague Christianne van der Wal this week. Even though she didn't even speak. The House of Representatives held a kind of talking marathon with itself (it looked like something they call a 'filibuster' in the US). The treatment will only continue after the May recess, a term for voting is not yet in sight.
€24 billion in the wrong hands
The minister must sit quietly on her billions for a while, no matter how quickly she would like to spend the money. In principle, there is a majority in the House of Representatives that would like to support it, but given the prospect of a BBB in power in the provinces, many left-wing parties consider it very dangerous to spend about €24 billion on reflection. to do with the region. The fear is that Van der Plas and associates will soon use it for their own purposes.
Van der Wal was also unable to make a decision in the cabinet about an adjustment to the nitrogen registration system.
Still short time
Until May 30, the cabinet and the compliant section of the House of Representatives have time to take a few more decisions along the lines of what has been done so far. After that it really gets a lot harder to do that. Then there is a completely different Senate, while the popularity of the BBB not yet decreasing, according to the latest polls.
It is difficult to say whether the movements within the CDA have anything to do with this, but the exodus of MPs is starting to be noticed. Veteran Jacco Geurts also opts for a position elsewhere.
Via Brussels it will always be possible to keep putting pressure on the Netherlands. The duo Timmermans and Samsom will continue to work for their goals, but after the recent Amice letter from Virginius to Van der Wal, this is not so easy. Even if the European Parliament ruled that the letter from the environment commissioner should not be seen as unwanted interference in a member state's own affairs. The defenders of the Sinkevicius-Timmermans line narrowly defeated their opponents. Even a European Commissioner cannot afford everything.
Promise remains promise
Back to the consultation tables for an Agricultural Agreement. The next dot on the horizon is the ultimatum of dairy farmers' association NMV. That ends on Sunday. There is a small chance that something will have been arranged for the PAS reporters. You can safely say that such a thing is not in the genes of this government coalition. The reluctance of the political partners to keep the promise made is apparently stronger than the promise itself.
Maybe the reflection table provide some helpful input, although there are no ethicists there. People with some knowledge of agriculture, food, economics, law and the environment. And they may not be allowed to talk about the latest insights into nitrogen. They are not appointed for that.
Methane 30% less bad
There is, by the way, interesting news to report in the field of nitrogen in a broad sense. The leaf Science News published new research on the greenhouse gas methane. According to this study, the warming effect of what many consider to be the most potent greenhouse gas is overestimated by 30%. However, it still remains the most warming greenhouse gas, that is.
No calculator
Although the negotiations on the agricultural agreement sometimes resembled a Polish country day, with its dozens of participants and eight different tables, it almost became even more extensive. At the last minute, a calculation table was waived. A cynic would say that this has been a sensible decision, many of the desired agreements cannot be calculated yet. There is a good revenue model for only a small percentage of farmers, and Brussels still has to give permission for the desired income supplement from, for example, agricultural conservation of nature.
In addition, the banks have no good news to add. Perhaps a small interest rate discount here and there, but the financing on land will only become more limited, see the Basel-4 agreements mentioned earlier. Moreover, Rabobank has no inclination to write off loans to farmers, as left-wing parties and NGOs like to see. The new (Belgian) CEO of Rabobank is very clear about this in an interview in the Financieele Dagblad.
Folded or not folded
In it, the new CEO also said that he was disappointed that the agricultural agreement had collapsed. "That the agricultural agreement has collapsed is completely wrong," Adema responded in another newspaper, the AD. He also accused Rabobank of being one of the parties that does the least to make agriculture more sustainable. According to the article, he sees more benevolence at the other banks.
Finally something about Farmers Defense Force (FDF). Although this club has never taken part in the touring table meetings, it does have clear views on it, and certainly on its current chairman, Chris Kalden. Although this man was also hired by Minister Adema and has a past as a top civil servant, according to the FDF, Kalden has (who has dived into his baptismal certificate) certainly not an independent status. Not only is he still a supervisor at Wetlands International, but a large part of his career is also devoted to earning money from nature, according to the organization. She fears that Kalden's kind of people will only become more powerful after a possible agreement. To the man or not, perhaps the appointment of a person like Kalden feels too much like the cat to the bacon for a group of farmers.
Klaas van der Horst
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