Johan Remkes will present his findings on Wednesday 5 October as a result of the nitrogen discussions between the cabinet and organisations, including those of farmers. These findings are important, because the government says that the implementation of nitrogen policy partly depends on this.
It is not yet known in what form Remkes will present his recommendations. In 2019 he already published a report on nitrogen called Not everything is possible everywhere. This report largely determined the government’s further nitrogen approach.
The results of the talks are also important now, because they will have to settle a discussion in the cabinet. CDA leader and minister Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs) recently said in an interview that the 2030 deadline is “not sacred” for his party if nitrogen emissions are halved. These goals are set out in the coalition agreement and are very important to coalition partner D66. Hoekstra’s statements led to an emergency debate in the House and a ticket in the cabinet. The interview has been “set aside” pending what Remkes comes up with, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said last month.
The letter with measures to give farmers perspective was recently postponed, because the cabinet wants to await Remkes’ conclusions. The departure of then agriculture minister Henk Staghouwer, who was responsible for the ‘perspective letter’, will not cause any further delay, according to Prime Minister Mark Rutte. For the time being, there is no successor for Staghouwer: former Minister of Agriculture and current Minister of Poverty Reduction Carola Schouten will take over his duties.
Many parties in the House were not at all enthusiastic about the role and influence of Remkes in The Hague. SP MP Renske Leijten wondered whether the cabinet should give Remkes the keys to the Torentje, because of his decisive role. The SGP was also surprised “about the position that Mr. Remkes will take”. Rutte took little notice of this criticism: according to him it is “very common” to ask someone with experience for such an assignment “when the soup gets very hot”.