Nitrogen law not a race yet

Minister Schouten sidelined the opposition parties GroenLinks and PvdA in the discussion of the Nitrogen Act today in the House of Representatives and in January in the Senate. This is according to NOS sources. Schouten is looking for support from the SGP, 50Plus and the SP.

With the support of the government parties, Schouten has a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, but not in the Senate. At the end of 2019, the minister succeeded in getting the temporary emergency nitrogen law through the Senate with the support of SGP, 50Plus and the Otten Group. Now, according to NOS, she has also managed to get SP on her side. SP and 50Plus are said to have negotiated an extra €20 million budget for housing, in particular the construction of care community centers. The SGP requires the minister to solve the problem of PAS reporters.

Less purchasing, more innovation
Today (10 December) the House of Representatives will debate the nitrogen problem all day long. Until 14.00 p.m. this afternoon, the alternative Nitrogen Act, which GroenLinks has drawn up, is on the agenda. The Nitrogen Act of LNV Minister Schouten is on the agenda from 14.45 pm. This debate is expected to discuss how much time and effort it will take PAS reporters before they can be sure that they have their permits in order again. This is of great importance in connection with financing and business takeovers. And will there be a professional ban on participation in the purchase schemes for livestock farms, as is also the case with the pig farming restructuring scheme?

It will also probably become clear whether the government parties CDA and VVD will demand that the minister shift part of the billions of budget for the purchase of livestock farms to innovation, as agricultural interest groups want. A €1,5 billion budget for the voluntary purchase of livestock farms can be spent much more effectively on investment support in low-emission operations and housing, LTO has been advocating for months. As a signal, the SGP already submitted a motion about this last week, which was co-signed by the CDA and the VVD. Minister Schouten may also provide more clarity about the interpretation of the so-called critical deposition value, which is much lower in the Netherlands than in Germany and Belgium.

play area
Schouten does not have much room to meet the criticism that the critical deposition value has been set too sharply. The opposition is ready to point out that the ambitions of the Nitrogen Act to protect nature do not go far enough. The Remkes committee would also have advised her to set the bar higher than it sets in the proposal. The ruling party D66 even wants to halve the pig population to protect nature, but seems to agree with the Nitrogen Act, for the sake of housing.

© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.