As a European Commissioner in Brussels, it seems easier to decree something and stick to it than to keep a tight rein in your own country. We are talking about 'Mister Green Deal', Frans Timmermans - who, as First Vice-President of the European Commission, pushed through an enormous package of environmental and sustainability measures. Agricultural and food interests feel like being run over by a steamroller. Timmermans went about his business so unstoppably (and with little listening).
Now back among the 'ordinary' people in the Netherlands and as leader of the GroenLinks-PvdA combination, everything works differently. So different that last weekend he suddenly no longer clung to the year 2030 for his sustainability plans. It was in a Dutch TV debate, but it reverberated throughout the EU. Particularly in Germany, France and Belgium, few people with any political interest have noticed.
After the sniggering, the backlash
After the sniggering, the pushback also comes out. Timmermans is gone, leaves a vacuum and continues to put his own efforts into perspective. Of course that does something and causes backlash. Some of this was reflected this week in a conversation between a group of MEPs and the dairy industry. According to German Christian Democrat Norbert Lins, committee chairman Ursula von der Leyen was not at all sad about the departure of Timmermans and his entourage of 'activists'. According to him, it is not without reason that Von der Leyen has recently spoken appreciatively about agriculture and called for a 'strategic dialogue', even though this is years too late. His liberal colleague Martin Hlavacek also expressed similar words.
No balance
Even the socialist (like Timmermans) Paolo de Castro spoke of a lack of balance and constant finger pointing at agriculture. He also suggested that Timmermans had been the cause of 'an open conflict' between environmental and agricultural interests in European structures. Dutch MEP Bert Jan Ruissen (SGP) also argued for a restoration of balance in EU policy in the areas of the environment and agriculture.
Communication via balcony
It has been known for some time that Timmermans and his team went about their business without paying much attention to the interests of agriculture and food. NGOs walked in and out of his office, but the agricultural organizations had to fight for fifteen minutes of attention. The office of the European agricultural organizations is located opposite Timmermans' old workplace (now Wopke Hoekstra's). Frustrations about this situation became so high that some considered communicating with the European Commissioner via a banner on the balcony, if necessary.
This Thursday it also became clear that the Nature Restoration Act, Timmermans' latest product, will only be introduced in a very weakened form, without the feared deterioration ban. There have been many sighs of relief about this, both in agriculture and elsewhere in the economy. This seems less damaging to Timmerman's political legacy than his own statements about a different end date for his environmental and climate plans.
Van der Wal is less moved than Timmermans
However, Timmermans' turn creates space for the Dutch political context, even if the GroenLinks-PvdA combination would not co-govern. There is still a bit of sharpness gone.
The outgoing Rutte cabinet is not yet very flexible. Certainly not nitrogen minister Christianne van der Wal. Schiphol was able to quickly help them get a permit a few weeks ago, but when the provinces knocked on their door this week with the plan for a nitrogen threshold, from which both construction and agriculture can benefit, she immediately said 'unfeasible'. . Compared to her, Timmermans seems more advanced. Perhaps we will have to wait for the election results at the end of this month before more movement is possible.
Adema also falls out of role
The question remains as to why this is happening, but the fact is that outgoing Agriculture Minister Piet Adema was also no longer keeping up. In a conversation with De Telegraaf, he calls the nitrogen policy, to which he had adapted so far, suddenly a completely derailed model reality and hopes for a different regime for agriculture. It is hoped that a quick formation will take place after the elections, because two opposite-thinking ministers on one departmental cushion....
Flemish permits
Because Flanders broadly works with the same nitrogen system as the Netherlands, the problems there are also comparable. Only the numbers there are slightly different. While the Netherlands has several thousand PAS detectors and Interimmers, there are about four hundred dairy farms in Flanders that are at risk of running into problems with their permit in the short term. And unlike in the Netherlands, there is not yet a BBB or NSC in Flanders to lend a helping hand to the countryside.