News Nitrogen
Address details of PAS reporters must be made public
The Minister of LNV must make the company addresses of PAS reporters public. This has been pronounced by the Council of State. Location data also includes business address data. According to the Administrative Jurisdiction Division, the minister cannot suffice by simply publishing the so-called coordination points of the emission sources.
De pronunciation comes as confirmation of an earlier judgment of the Northern Netherlands court in June last year.
Between 2015 and 2019, based on the Nitrogen Approach Program (PAS), no permit was required for activities with limited nitrogen emissions. Companies could suffice with a notification. MOB asked the minister to make all PAS reports made public during this period, in order to get a complete picture of nitrogen emissions. The minister has made about 3.500 reports public, with the exception of location data.
MOB appeals against minister
MOB previously appealed against this to the Northern Netherlands District Court. For practical reasons, the court first decided to rule on ten reports from agricultural companies in Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe and Overijssel. The court already ruled on this in July 2020 that the minister also had to make the location data of the companies public. The minister and LTO Noord appealed against that decision to the Administrative Jurisdiction Division.
Location data is emission data
The Administrative Jurisdiction Division ruled in January 2021 that the requested location data is not only environmental information, but in particular also emission data. The aim of the Wob is to make as much information public as possible about (nitrogen) emissions into the environment. That is why the Wob provides, for example, that if emission data is requested, the privacy of stakeholders may not play a role in the decision to make it public.
Privacy-sensitive information on the street
With the ruling of the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of January 2021, this procedure was not yet over. The minister was of the opinion that it was not necessary to make the concrete address details public, but that the coordinates of the emission source would suffice. This is to prevent a large amount of privacy-sensitive data being available to everyone. MOB believes that the minister has not implemented the ruling of January 2021. The Northern Netherlands court ruled in MOB's favor. The Council of State confirms this again. The minister must now make the requested company address details public within three weeks.
LTO: Resolving the permit situation all the more important
"It feels absurd", responds Trienke Elshof, portfolio holder Countryside & Environment at LTO Nederland in a message. "Hundreds of farmers are being legally pursued even though they have always acted in good faith and in accordance with the law. With the Nitrogen Act and the coalition agreement, a huge emission reduction is on the horizon. Why should their data still be thrown out under the guise of 'publicity? on board'?" According to the organization, it is now all the more important to resolve the permit situation of the reporters urgently.
Klaas van der Horst
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