Three thousand Dutch farmers are in uncertainty. While they can’t do anything about it themselves, their permits have been out of order for almost three years. “As governments, we should be ashamed that so many entrepreneurs have ended up between two stools,” says Brabant deputy Erik Ronnes (CDA). The problem is related to the nitrogen crisis.
The generally mild deputy Erik Ronnes (CDA) is fierce when he talks about the Brabant PAS reporters. A term that may not mean a lot to people, but it nevertheless refers to more than 450 farmers in Brabant who are hopelessly stuck in the nitrogen rules. In May 2019, their businesses became illegal overnight. They couldn’t do anything about it themselves.
Lay awake
Stefan Bogers from Hoogerheide is one of those PAS detectors. “It really kept me awake,” he says. “We immediately realized that it was wrong.” He fears that the latest developments will throw a spanner in the works for his carefully planned business takeover process. “The government must provide us with clarity quickly.”
What is going on? Almost three years ago, the Council of State put an end to the PAS. It was a scheme to end the degradation of nature from nitrogen. The judges found that arrangement ineffective. Since the abolition, the Netherlands has been in ‘the nitrogen crisis’.
worth nothing anymore
The decision of the Council of State had a very personal consequence for more than three thousand Dutch farmers. Under the PAS scheme, in certain cases they did not require a permit for, for example, the construction of a new stable, but a notification to the authorities was sufficient. However, since the regulation was swept off the table, those reports are no longer worth anything and they are without a permit.
Nitrogen minister Christianne van der Wal recently came up with a plan to give the PAS detectors a permit. According to her, that should be done before the end of 2025. That means the last PAS reporters to be licensed have been undocumented for six-and-a-half years.
no credit
A permit is important. “It’s the basis,” says Marijn Dekkers, livestock sector specialist at Rabobank. “Every entrepreneur needs a permit. In principle, that makes sense.” His bank takes the position that companies without a license do not receive credit. Dekkers calls it ‘distressing for the PAS reporters’. “They are acting in good faith. But they can no longer make plans and are in uncertainty. They cannot continue with their business.”
Why does it take years to legalize PAS reporters? For the more than three thousand new permits, nitrogen space is needed. Nitrogen emissions in the Netherlands must be drastically reduced in the coming years. Anyone who needs a permit for a company that emits nitrogen will only get one if less nitrogen is produced elsewhere.
The government is desperately looking for such nitrogen space, not only for the 3500 PAS detectors but also for new highways, for Lelystad airport and for the hundred thousand homes that her colleague minister Hugo de Jonge wants to build every year to do something about the pollution. housing crisis.
Spectacular failure
“The government has failed spectacularly here,” says Hans Huijbers, cattle farmer from Brabant and one of the leaders of farmers’ organization ZLTO for a long time. “Those farmers had nitrogen space. The government wanted to simplify the rules with those notifications and now all that nitrogen space from those farmers has suddenly leaked away. Ridiculous.”
Deputy Erik Ronnes draws a similar conclusion. “These farmers have fallen between two stools because they could not rely on the government. That is quite something.”
The three thousand Dutch PAS reporters are a problem that has not yet been solved by politicians. Omroep Brabant explains the problem in a series of three stories. This is episode 1, about the origin of the problem and the administrative chagrin of the provinces. Episode 2 is about the legal battle between the provinces and the environmental organizations. Episode three tells the personal story of one of the approximately 400 PAS detectors in Brabant.