Boerenbond to Council of State against nitrogen agreement
In March, the Flemish government reached an agreement to reduce nitrogen precipitation by half by 2030. A number of farms will have to stop as a result, and farmers will only receive a new permit if they keep their nitrogen emissions below a certain threshold to protect nature.
The Boerenbond did not reject the agreement in March. “Critical adjustments” had been made that could provide farmers with prospects for the future, it said. Now the organization says it has established that “to date, not a single step has been taken” to convert those adjustments. The agreement also contains “fundamental flaws”, according to Boerenbond.
Putting pressure
The agricultural organization is going to court with various arguments. She believes, among other things, that the agreement violates the property rights of the affected farmers, and that the unequal treatment of agriculture and industry cannot be justified. There would also be insufficient account of 20,000 objections.
The legal steps seem mainly intended to put pressure on the Flemish government. Boerenbond indicates that the procedure can still be stopped if farmers are given “legal certainty and future prospects”. “It is up to the Flemish government to take its duties in this matter seriously and to take concrete actions.”