Van Dam not yet ready for POR scheme

State Secretary Martijn van Dam sees no scope to extend the POR scheme, which expires on December 31, 2017. Nevertheless, the PVDA minister will enter into discussions with representatives in the pig and poultry sector to reconsider next autumn whether there is still room for an extension.

Van Dam writes this in a letter from the House of Representatives. Recently, the VVD and CDA came together with a motion to maintain the POR regulation, Regulation on exemption from production rights in the Fertilizers Act. A scheme that is included as part of the 2017 package of measures for the reduction of phosphate. The adopted motion by the CDA and VVD requests the State Secretary not to include the POR scheme in the package of measures and to decide on this after the evaluation of the Fertilizers Act.

In the letter, Van Dam states that the results of the evaluation will be included in the decision to be taken this autumn. In advance, however, Van Dam estimates the chances of extending the POR scheme to be small. ‘At the moment I see no scope for granting the exemptions,’ the State Secretary said in his letter.

With little chance, Van Dam says that scope for maintaining the derogation after 2017 must be achieved from all quarters, which means that the pig and poultry sectors must also move to limit phosphate emissionsÂ. However, the question is whether Van Dam will still be at his post next fall. This is because a new cabinet will be formed, because of the elections to the House of Representatives that will be held on 15 March.  

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