Nitrogen policy has entered a vicious circle that is driving the country deeper and deeper into trouble. The seeds were sown in 2015, with the ramshackle Programmatic Approach Nitrogen (PAS), with which the Netherlands tried to avoid the self-made European nature conservation agreements. Permits were issued via the PAS for activities that emit nitrogen, based on the promise that the additional damage to the natural areas elsewhere and at a later date would be compensated. In 2019, the Council of State brushed off that reasoning, with an unmistakable message: we don’t buy anything for promises, we want to see results. As a result, construction in large parts of the country came to a standstill.
Subsequently, the Rutte III and IV cabinets organized a series of recommendations and reports, mainly to buy time, but the message always remained the same: without quick, concrete nitrogen reduction, construction will come to a standstill. However, the cabinet succumbed time and again to farmers’ protests against measures in the sector that causes by far the most emissions: intensive livestock farming. Little to nothing has happened there in three years.
The cabinet did try again via a legal shortcut, with the construction exemption: at least let us continue to build, because in the meantime we are really working on measures to really do something about nature conservation. On Wednesday, the Council of State also made short work of that, again with the same message: we do not accept hot air. ‘It is necessary that those measures have actually been implemented and that the expected benefits are established.’
The Council emphasizes that it does see the general interest of all those construction projects. That is why she even briefly considered asking the European Court of Justice whether the nature protection requirements could not be ‘nuanced’. But the cabinet does so little that even such a nuance would do little to help.
And so the construction exemption came to an end. This will delay thousands of construction projects and, in many cases, eliminate the necessary permits. For the cabinet, which already saw this ruling coming, this could have been a reason to resolutely implement the recommendations of nitrogen mediator Johan Remkes this autumn. To start with, the rapid termination of emissions from the 500 to 600 peak loaders among livestock farmers. Instead, Rutte IV again went looking for respite and soothing words, extremely afraid of making someone angry.
The government is facing many problems, but none are so completely self-inflicted as this ever-growing nitrogen problem.
The position of the newspaper is expressed in the Volkskrant Commentaar. It is created after a discussion between the commentators and the editor-in-chief.