“The pride of Limburg,” said N-VA chairman Bart De Wever Zuhal Demir on Saturday at the party’s summer party. Nevertheless, the Flemish Minister for the Environment is struggling with a lot of opposition to the nitrogen dossier. More than 5,000 objections have now been raised among local authorities. filed against the nitrogen agreement of the Flemish government. “But saying that we are going to do less, that will not solve the nitrogen problem”, it sounds in the studio of VTM Nieuws.
At the end of February, the Flemish government had reached an agreement to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and ammonia from agriculture and industry. In that “crocus agreement” the stricter nitrogen standards that had been introduced a year earlier after a decision by the Council for Permit Disputes about a poultry house in Kortessem were maintained. For agriculture, the agreement means, among other things, that 41 of the most polluting farms must close by 2025. The draft nitrogen framework and the associated environmental impact report could be viewed during the public inquiry until June 18. All stakeholders, ranging from citizens to organizations and administrations, were given the opportunity to submit comments or objections. It is not yet known exactly how many were submitted, but according to Minister Demir, it concerns “more than 5,000” objections.
“For every objection that the farmers have submitted, there are also objections from environmental and nature organizations that say that the nitrogen agreement should be further tightened,” said Minister Demir. All those objections will be considered by the government this summer before the nitrogen agreement is poured into legal texts, she assures. “An agreement is an agreement. We will of course look at all those objections, but saying that we should do less is not going to solve the nitrogen problem.”
Quote
The problem is very clear, we have a major nitrogen problem. If we don’t do anything, we’re going to go into a licensing freeze.
The minister emphasizes that of the 12,000 agricultural companies in Flanders, 41 companies with high nitrogen emissions are located very close to a nature reserve and therefore have to close. “We arrived at that list based on a number of criteria. If the public inquiry now shows that we need to use different criteria, we will look into that. But there will be no fewer,” it sounds.
The nitrogen ruling has shattered the entire regulations, and that could have major consequences for our economy, warns Minister Demir. So doing nothing is not an option, she repeats. “We have a major nitrogen problem. If we do nothing, we will go to a licensing freeze.”
“Scaremongering”
In the VTM Nieuws studio, the minister lashed out at brand new CD&V chairman Sammy Mahdi, who warned earlier this week about food shortages that could be caused by closing Flemish farms. “Unacceptable”, says Demir, those statements. “That is fear mongering. That is actually not correct. We produce pigs 2.5 times in Flanders than we eat ourselves. We export the rest abroad, but that export market has been gone for years.”
Watch the full studio conversation with Zuhal Demir here:
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.