At the proposal of the VVD, a majority in the Senate of BBB, PVV, JA21 and several small factions postponed the law requiring the closure of the gas tap in Groningen.
This was to the surprise of State Secretary Hans Vijlbrief of Mining and parties such as D66, CDA, GroenLinks-PvdA, Volt and SP.
Senator Caspar van den Berg of the VVD said that there is still too much uncertainty among his group about the security of supply of natural gas. Moreover, the House of Representatives is said to have not sufficiently taken into account the tense international situation.
The SP reacted ‘astonished’. Fred Crone of GL-PvdA said that this can only mean that the parties that are now forming still want to use the Groningen gas bubble. Van den Berg denied that.
Wednesday debate in the House of Representatives
A few weeks ago, the House of Representatives almost unanimously agreed to permanently closing the gas tap. There will be a debate in the House of Representatives on Wednesday about the gas market. That is about how to deal with crisis situations and is separate from the Groningen gas tap, but the VVD wants to link it to it. According to Van den Berg, the decision about Groningen for the new gas year could then still be final. But in that case, the ministry is more likely to expect a one-year postponement.
The parties that are now forming have made agreements behind the scenes about this postponement, as became apparent during the debate in the Senate.
