Background Nitrogen mood
Agricultural agreement is nearing completion and the counter is opening
Less than two weeks to go until Sjaak van der Tak's finish line: June 21. Minister Piet Adema and his main assistant Chris Kalden are still working three strokes around to prepare something that resembles an Agriculture Agreement. It is and will remain quite a task, it turns out, because Adema and Kalden do not only have to consult with opposing agricultural parties. Adema also has to feed back the interim results of the consultations to the coalition parties, to see whether they, and especially D66, can live with it. A kind of mirror meeting.
This is what LTO dairy farm chairman Erwin Wunnekink stated during a large meeting with East Brabant dairy farmers in Deurne. It was the first major occasion where LTO opened a small book about the consultation. It did happen in a defensive atmosphere, because the mistrust of what hangs over the heads turned out to be great again. They absolutely do not see a GVE standard or grassland standard (apparently an idea from D66) in East Brabant. According to Wunnekink, an accountable substance balance (ASB) could also be an idea, although this still has objections in terms of verifiability.
Good entrepreneurship
The status of the talks was not immediately clear. Several formats are circulating on social media for agreement texts, where the agricultural parties (LTO/NAJK) only have to enter a number, but anything is still possible, Wunnekink, LTO director Hans van den Heuvel and ZLTO chairman Wim hurried Ben to insure. It is also very possible that no agreement can be reached, says Van den Heuvel, who defended continuing to talk as 'good entrepreneurship'. Then at least you have a finger on the pulse. Van den Heuvel also wanted to say that LTO will not let an agreement be broken on one point. "Not on yours either," he said. For the time being, LTO still has several points of objection, but the impression has lingered a bit that LTO considers many measures to be unavoidable.
ZLTO inside, FDF outside
That was not met in the room, where only ZLTO members were allowed in, nor outside, where the FDF stayed with foreman Marc van den Oever. The FDF did not participate in the discussion, nor was it allowed to enter, but ZLTO chairman Bens did make an attempt to reassure them that an agreement will not be reached just like that. Every negotiation result will be fed back to the members, and according to him, the LTO foreman cannot do anything on his own. "It is not the case that Van der Tak can just put a signature on something. The current agreement is insufficient, not only in terms of LSU, but also in breadth." Yet Bens still received numerous warnings from members. "You can expect 60% of the members to walk out of a deal," he said.
Too little concrete
Although there is a lot of dissatisfaction and resistance at the base of LTO, there was also a setback for Adema from another side. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) started calculating with the concepts drawn up by Adema and Kalden and concluded that these plans are still far too vague to be able to say anything about them, media report. That does not seem strange, because it has been known for months that the retail sector has little extra for more sustainably produced products and that the European Commission is against too high a remuneration for work that farmers perform on natural and landscape grounds. It would distort competition. It wrings on the known points.
Meanwhile, the pressure on farmers from 'the nitrogen corner' continues. The cabinet remains on its hands when it comes to help for PAS reporters and Interimmers, despite a recent small commitment from Minister for Nature and Nitrogen Christianne van der Wal. There is also nothing to see of an outstretched hand towards farmers with a state-approved low-emission stable that does not do what it promises. Everything is legally cast in concrete and the current cabinet wants to keep it that way.
Seen in that light, it is almost amusing to read that the same minister Van der Wal is objecting to the new European nature rules that European Commissioner Frans Timmermans is working hard on. According to Van der Wal, this encourages a further juridification of nature policy. This sounds like the pot calling the kettle black. What Van der Wal is complaining about is exactly what her Nature directorate has worked consistently and diligently on in recent years. Or would she not know?
Nitrogen counter opens
Finally, Van der Wal also announced last night at Op1 that the nitrogen counter, where farmers can see which schemes they qualify for, will open next week. The regulations were discussed in the Council of Ministers today.
Klaas van der Horst
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