New bilateral talks on nitrogen: does ‘unblocking proposal’ bring landing prospects? | Interior

Will Prime Minister Jambon finally manage to get the annoying nitrogen gravel out of his shoe? Just like yesterday, Jambon will stick to separate conversations for the time being. A proposal has been put on the table from the N-VA corner in an attempt to unblock the matter. It is still unclear what exactly is in that proposal and what the other government parties (Open Vld and CD&V) think of the proposal.

Earlier it became known that eleven of the thirteen bottlenecks in the file have been clarified, including the red list of companies that must close. Two major bottlenecks remained. The most important is the distinction in licensing rules between agriculture and industry. In addition, there is discussion about the so-called net metering. If there are three farms near a nature reserve and one of them closes, the emission margin of that company should be able to be transferred (partly) to the two remaining ones, CD&V believes.

N-VA chairman Bart De Wever told VTM News that an agreement is on the table, and that it is now time to conclude. “You can look at that for another two weeks, three weeks, but the question is: will time help or will it become more difficult? If everyone starts to argue, make statements and there is a lot of disinformation and people are stirred up, then time is no longer helping and it is logical that at some point you say: now is the time to land.”

CD&V chairman Sammy Mahdi, on the other hand, emphasized the need for a good agreement that also offers prospects for farmers. “You have to ensure that there are prospects for the farmers. There are different ways to achieve that nitrogen reduction, for us it is essential that it is in a way that also offers farmers a future,” he said in De Zevende Dag.

Prime Minister Jambon promised an agreement in the week after the spring break. At the same time, it can be heard that the head of government does not want to reconvene his core cabinet until there is a prospect of a decision. No one dares to predict what will happen if no agreement is reached on Sunday. In principle, the Flemish government cannot fall. A new, alternative majority can only be achieved through a so-called constructive vote of no confidence in parliament.

One of the direct consequences of the lack of an agreement is that the existing ministerial instruction from Minister of the Environment Demir – introduced after the much-discussed nitrogen ruling of February 2021 – will remain in force. This instruction makes it very difficult to obtain permits for livestock farming and also offers no prospect of eliminating the difference in permit thresholds between industry and agriculture.

In the meantime, Open Vld repeats its plea from before the weekend, namely a disconnection of the debate on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from the nitrogen dossier. The dossier of European agricultural subsidies has been linked to the nitrogen talks for weeks, but Open Vld vice-minister-president Bart Somers argues for a disconnection, something that CD&V has been asking for some time. “Farmers need those resources, they have a right to them,” he says. “It is already about 300 million euros in much-needed support for 2023. We must not plunge farmers into uncertainty. That hits them unnecessarily hard. Let us judge that file on its own merits. Spring is just around the corner, farmers now want certainty.” He points to the cultivation plans that farmers are currently working out.

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