Demir (N-VA) tightens nitrogen measures himself after no agreement with CD&V – Open Vld: “We really won’t get there that way” | Interior

After CD&V refused to approve the draft nitrogen decree, N-VA and Open Vld warned of a total permit freeze. But Jambon emphasized that the government will continue to implement the nitrogen agreement of March “no matter what”. Demir was asked to “take the necessary steps to fill the vacuum created by the non-approval of the design, in the interest of legal certainty for farmers and entrepreneurs”.

To fill that vacuum, Demir has issued two ministerial instructions. In the instructions to all licensing authorities, she introduces, among other things, a inadmissibility threshold of 0.025 percent for new applications from livestock farming. Extensions of permits without emission reductions will no longer be possible.

The Flemish government will too appeal against any permit that even slightly contradicts the instruction. Finally, Demir carries the reduction of the pig herd by thirty percent by 2030 as “a desirable development from a policy perspective”. This target had already been laid down in the nitrogen agreement.

According to Demir, “links were made that had not been agreed” last week. “CD&V does not have permission from the Boerenbond to keep its word,” said the minister. Talking about it is pointless, she says. “The lemon has been squeezed,” it sounds. But as far as she is concerned, there is no quarrel in the government. “There is clarity”.

She further emphasizes that she is doing this to “avoid the risk of a licensing freeze and close the vacuum as much as possible”. “It is not my preferred scenario,” said the minister. “I’m not doing this to offend anyone, but because of the lack of an alternative.”

Demir cannot promise whether a permit stop will be definitively over with this. “The sword of Damocles will hang over Flanders as long as there is no conclusive legally robust decree. But, these measures ensure that the sword hangs a bit more firmly,” concludes Demir.

According to her colleague from Agriculture Jo Brouns (CD&V) Demir creates legal uncertainty with her two ministerial instructions, because she breaks into existing permits. “That’s the opposite of what we want,” he says. At the same time, the minister believes it is important to keep a cool head “in function of agriculture” and to implement the agreements made in March. “We have to cross the road together,” he said tonight in an interview with VRT.

Flemish Minister of Society Bart Somers (Open Vld) calls on everyone to “go back to the table instead of crawling into the trenches”. “Brouns lets go of the March agreement, Demir pulls the handbrake hard. We really can’t get there,” he said on Twitter. “We have to go back to the table, not in the trenches. Tomorrow if it depends on us.”

Gwendolyn Rutten, Flemish Member of Parliament and party colleague of Somers, reacts more sharply. “Political poker with our food supply at stake,” Rutten tweets. “I get angry at the spectacle that Demir and Brouns perform,” responds Willem-Frederik Schiltz, leader of Open Vld in the Flemish Parliament. “It is delayed, threatened and with a unilateral “instruction” things are put on edge.” Schlitz calls for “less spectacle politics and more cooperation that leads to results”.