Brussels refuses access to state aid decision

The European Commission (EC) has rejected the Eurowob request from 'Innovative from the Knel'. The action group, which consists of hundreds of troublemakers, wants to know what the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality has agreed with the EC regarding the state aid decision of the phosphate rights system.

The EC refuses to provide access to the documents, which Innovative from the Knel has requested via a Eurowob request. The EC is hiding behind the 'privacy reasons' argument. Henk Antonissen, the spokesperson for Innovative from de Knel, reports that the action group is not satisfied with that answer and is considering going to court. "We want to know what the ministry has agreed with the EC when drawing up the state aid decision."

Antonissen believes that the bottlenecks have a right to know whether it was determined when the state aid decision was drawn up whether phosphate rights could also be granted to beef farmers, as has happened in practice. As a result, the phosphate ceiling (84,9 million kilos) was exceeded when the rights were awarded last year, leaving no room for pinched to accommodate. 

Next steps
The group of people who are in trouble is assisted by lawyer Eric Janssen from Kneppelhout & Korthals Advocaten from Rotterdam. Janssen says that he will object to the rejection of the Eurowob request. That request is currently being prepared by the lawyer and will be submitted within a few days. "It is not clear to me why the European Commission initially rejected the request. No specific substantiation is given."

The lawyer believes that he has good arguments that the Eurowob request will be granted in the second instance. At the same time, he does not rule out another rejection. "The EC is more often reluctant to provide data when it comes to requests for decision-making." If the objection is rejected, there are 2 further steps: the case can be brought before the Court of Justice of the European Union and/or the European Ombudsman can be consulted.

shadowy
For Antonissen, the rejection makes it seem as if the policymakers have something to hide. He believes that such a request is already a major step to gain insight into the establishment of the state aid decision. Antonissen does not consider the privacy reasons raised by the EC to be a legitimate reason. "It's not about the people, it's about content† If necessary, the names of the officials and other involved parties will be omitted."

Antonissen reports that the Innovative from the Knel action group is far from finished. "We will continue fanatically and have even more action points in the barrel." The spokesperson would not yet say which exactly those are. 

Wouter Job

Wouter Baan is Head of Meat & Dairy at BoerenbusinessAt DCA Market Intelligence, he focuses on dairy, pork, and meat markets. He also monitors (business) developments within agribusiness and interviews CEOs and policymakers.

w.baan@boerenbusiness. Nl

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