Dutch minister rejects provinces’ funding requests for nitrogen reduction

Nitrogen Minister Christianne Van der Wal (VVD/Renew) rejected the Dutch provinces’ funding requests for nitrogen reduction on Monday, stating that their plans greatly exceed the government’s available funds.

While the government had made €24,3 billion available for the provincial plans within the NLPG, the provinces’ requests amounted to roughly €58 billion.

“€24.3 billion is currently set as the fund amount. If that is going to change, given our financial position, it will not be adjusted upwards: you will rather have to backtrack. Therefore, the more stringent the choices, the lower the amount on the receipt,” Van der Wal told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

The requests – which are part of the so-called “National Rural Area Program” (NPLG) – were supposed to map out the funds necessitated by the individual Dutch provinces in order to reach the country’s nitrogen and nature goals by 2030.

The NPLG is part of the Netherlands’ efforts to reduce its nitrogen emissions in order to comply with EU environmental regulations. The majority of measures are aimed at reducing emissions in the agricultural sector, provoking fierce criticism and protests among Dutch farmers and agricultural representatives.

Accordingly, the senate group for the upstart agrarian protest party Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), which maintains the largest presence in the Dutch senate since its landslide victory in the regional elections back in March, described the legal basis of the funding requests as “being built on quicksand”.

Despite the large margin between the provinces’ requests and the available funding, Van der Wal is nevertheless optimistic that progress can be made on the subject – not least because the EU may intervene otherwise.

“If we don’t solve the nitrogen problem, I see two risks. The first is that Brussels will take over. That is a real risk,” the minister stated.

“The second is the economic damage to the Netherlands. We already cannot permit extensions for the power grid, simply because there is no nitrogen space. The same goes for expanding infrastructure and various housing projects,” she concluded.

(Benedikt Stöckl | EURACTIV.com)

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