The farmers and their advocates made themselves heard again this week. Arguing that necessity simply breaks laws, three farmers’ organizations proposed on Tuesday to temporarily suspend compliance with the European Nitrate Directive now that the European Commission is willing to listen.
Dutch dairy farmers are left with overflowing manure cellars because Brussels has allowed them to spread less manure on their land this year than before. In the coming years, this maximum will be reduced even further, forcing farmers to have their growing manure surplus removed at high costs.
“Thousands of farms will end up in a cold restructuring,” the press release from the agricultural organizations warns. They therefore ask the House of Representatives to support their crisis plan, which should avert this disaster. Step one in that ‘crisis plan’ is for Adema to return to Brussels and explain to the European Commissioner for the umpteenth time what a gigantic problem he has saddled the Dutch farmers with. “We cannot imagine that the European Commission does not understand this,” write the agricultural umbrella organization LTO, the organization of young farmers NAJK and the Natuurweide, the association of organic dairy farmers. ‘We assume that the minister will find the European Commission on his side.’
About the author
Yvonne Hofs is a political reporter for de Volkskrant and writes about finance, economic affairs and agriculture, nature and fishing.
If the European Commissioner unexpectedly persists in his error, the farmers’ crisis plan will switch to step two. Step two is that the Dutch cabinet flatly ignores the order from Brussels and tolerates farmers continuing to spread as much manure as before. In that case, the Netherlands should not be very afraid of legal proceedings, the agricultural organizations believe. The European Court will certainly realize that it is disproportionate to expect Dutch farmers to suddenly adhere to the same manure rules as farmers in other Member States.
Benefit scheme ended
Until this year, Dutch farmers were allowed to spread more manure per hectare than their peers in other Member States. The European Commission has ended this benefit scheme because the water quality in the Netherlands is poor. Fertilizers from agriculture are the main cause of this.
In addition to a plea and threat to Brussels, the farmers’ crisis plan also contains a few concrete measures to reduce manure production. Although they qualify these measures as ‘very far-reaching and drastic for the sector’, it is a highly watered-down version of the action plan that Adema presented three weeks ago.
The sector’s crisis plan apparently did not go far enough for the BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB), because Caroline van der Plas’s party went even further on Thursday. “There is not a manure crisis because there is too much manure, but because farmers cannot optimally use their manure on their land due to European and Dutch rules,” the party states on its website. The BBB also offers ‘solutions’ in a multi-point plan. In summary, these amount to immediately throwing overboard almost all obstructive environmental regulations and agreements with the European Commission. For example, the BBB believes that the Netherlands should adapt the Nitrate Directive on its own, while this can only be done with the consent of other member states.
Minister Adema is busy during the parliamentary debate. The minister spends most of his speaking time debunking these types of proposals. Not just the BBB; The PVV and SGP also want to explore and possibly exceed legal boundaries to help intensive livestock farming get out of trouble. Just before the debate, the minister sent a letter to Parliament in which he noted that LTO’s crisis plan contained a number of omissions. It does not say anything about enforcement and the maximum standard for the number of cows per hectare of grassland that Adema wants to introduce, ‘measures that in my view are essential’. He leaves undiscussed in his letter the call for national disobedience towards Brussels.
Gray turned plate
In his direct confrontation with the House of Representatives, Adema does address those mutiny proposals. He has told the House countless times over the past six months that the European Commission is adamant on this point, but the PVV, BBB, SGP – and sometimes also NSC – just don’t want to believe it. MPs from those parties ask Adema again in every debate to pound the table in Brussels and demand back the canceled manure benefit (derogation).
Like a grayscaled record, the minister repeats that this makes no sense. He has begged the European Commissioner for leniency so many times and has always been dismissed. ‘I notice that the door in Brussels is closed. My hard conclusion is that the Netherlands is not in favor of a new derogation in any form.’
Adema also explains why this is the case: the Netherlands structurally does not adhere to agreements. The Netherlands could have seen the loss of the derogation coming years ago, because Brussels was already preparing for it at the time. But under the influence of the powerful farmers’ lobby, recent Dutch cabinets ignored the signs. The agricultural sector has always resisted livestock reductions and other environmental measures. That is why politicians did not dare to impose it.
Now that the tide is turning, farmers are screaming bloody murder because they have to adapt to the lower manure standards in a very short time. The self-awareness that they have brought this upon themselves with their lobbying for the postponement of inevitable measures seems to be missing.
“We should actually have taken the measures that are now on the table four years ago,” says Adema. ‘The Commission has noted time and time again that the Netherlands does not keep promises about improving water quality. That’s why trust is completely gone.’ The Netherlands can only regain that trust by implementing those postponed measures, he says. According to him, this is the only serious solution to the manure crisis.
High fines and lawsuits
He thinks choosing the collision course with Brussels is extremely unwise. ‘The risk of legal proceedings if we violate the fertilizer agreements with the Commission should not be underestimated.’ The Netherlands therefore risks not only infringement proceedings from the European Commission, which can result in very high fines, but also lawsuits in the Netherlands. Dutch environmental organizations can go to the Dutch courts if the Netherlands does not comply with European legislation. “That risk is irresponsible,” Adema tells the recalcitrant MPs. In his view, proposals to tolerate violations of the manure rules so that farmers can dispose of their manure on their agricultural land lack any sense of reality.
BBB spokesperson Cor Pierik sees this differently. He firmly holds on to his rightness. “Sense of reality is a subjective concept,” he snaps at the minister. Ultimately, Adema turns out to have more supporters than he does; A large parliamentary majority of VVD, NSC, GroenLinks-PvdA, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie made it clear during the debate that they will support Adema’s approach to the manure problem.
