Stikstofclaim Foundation, Agractie, the unions for dairy farmers and poultry farmers and the Dutch Dairyman Board are going to court to have Brabant’s stable policy inactivated. According to the organizations, the province’s policy is legally shaky and therefore too much is asked of farmers.
The ZLTO previously went to court over the stable policy. As part of this policy, farmers with an outdated stable must inform the province before July 1 this year how they will make their farm more sustainable.
Legal doubts
Legal doubts have existed since the province announced at the end of last year that livestock farmers only have to report their sustainability plans. Farmers no longer need a permit for these plans and can choose measures from a ‘menu’ to significantly reduce their nitrogen emissions.
The province cannot give farmers 100 percent legal certainty that a judge will find sustainable efforts by farmers sufficient. “We can only provide that certainty once a judge has considered it,” the responsible deputy previously said. The province does say that it has confidence in its policy.
Systems that don’t work
The five organizations do not have that confidence. They fear that farmers will soon have to invest heavily in housing systems that provide less nitrogen on paper, but work much less well in practice. That would not be the first time: in recent years, countless livestock farmers’ permits have been shredded because they were unable to prove the operation of their systems sufficiently in court.
In addition, it remains uncertain whether reporting nitrogen measures will remain legally valid. The farmers’ organizations call the policy ‘yet another trial balloon from the province’.
At the same time, this lawsuit and a similar summary judgment from the ZLTO may provide more clarity about the legal certainty of Brabant’s stable policy. How and what will soon become clear, when the judge makes a ruling. It is not yet known when that will be.
Nitrogen crisis
Because vulnerable nature areas are in bad shape, permits may not be granted to projects that provide extra nitrogen in those areas. This causes delays in, for example, housing construction and road construction. To solve this problem, nitrogen emissions, which mainly come from livestock farming, must be significantly reduced.
