Brussels has warned furious Dutch farmers that compulsory farm buyouts are the only way for the Netherlands to meet its EU climate targets.
Climate chief Frans Timmermans said the European Commission would explain the green laws to Caroline van der Plas, the leader of the Farmers-Citizen Movement (BBB). [emphasis, links added]
The BBB triumphed in regional elections last week after months of tractor protests that drew global attention and the support of former US president Donald Trump.
Farmers oppose prime minister Mark Rutte’s plans to reduce livestock numbers and buy up farms to cut nitrogen emissions, which are caused by manure and fertilizer.
“The Netherlands can only achieve the targets by buying out farmers and greening agriculture,” Mr. Timmermans, who is Dutch, said.
“Let’s invest a lot in that. Above all, we have to give young farmers a perspective for the future,” the commission vice president told the NOS broadcaster.
The Dutch government says it must reduce nitrogen emissions by 50 percent by 2030 to meet EU targets.
The BBB’s opposition to both the climate commitment and the compulsory purchase of farms put it on a collision course with the ruling four-party coalition and the EU.
Mr. Timmermans, a commission vice-president, said Ms van der Plas would be “very welcome” to visit Brussels after her landslide victory.
“We will then do exactly the same thing we have done before with officials, which is to explain what the European rules are,” the socialist and former foreign minister said.
Mr. Timmerman’s comments are likely to fuel online conspiracy theories that the nitrogen row is a globalist pretext to steal the farmers’ land.
Ms van der Plas called for a meeting with Mr. Timmermans after reports his department had backed the farm buyouts in advice to the government.
But the former journalist, who only founded the BBB in 2019, demanded he comes to meet her rather than her travel to Brussels.
“I understand that Timmermans also often comes to The Hague, so it can be done very quickly,” she said and demanded to know what solutions Brussels was offering to the nitrogen issue.
The BBB came from nowhere to become the largest party in all 12 Dutch provinces in an electoral triumph that raised questions over the survival of Mr. Rutte’s ruling coalition.
The vote became a de facto referendum on Mr. Rutte’s leadership, who became the leader in 2010 and is the Netherlands’ longest-serving prime minister.
The BBB can now use its 17 seats in the Dutch senate to try and block farm expropriations, which Mr. Rutte says are needed to lift a court-ordered stop on nitrogen-emitting construction of roads and housing.
Its protests have spawned similar tractor demonstrations in Dutch-speaking Flanders in neighboring Flanders.
Ms van der Plas has said the movement is about more than just nitrogen and said voters are “fed up” with traditional politicians and politics.
The BBB has registered as a political party for next year’s European Parliament elections as it seeks to build on its national success, which saw it victorious in urban and rural areas.
The populist movement does not want the Netherlands to leave the EU in a Brexit-style divorce but it says the bloc should be a common market and not a super-state.
Read rest at The Times
I hope that the election win for the farmers will reverse the devastation policies of the current government.
“The bloc (European Union) should be a common market and not a super-state.” This is very true and a common market for Europe is a good thing. However, liberals have been in control and they want strong top down management of everything. I will again mention that the European parliament even dictates where farmers can have their compost piles.
The real manure in this story is the European Union legislation that Brussels throws at honest ambitious people. What are the Dutch farmers doing wrong? They feed Holland and export the surplus. No shortage of buyers. Everyone is okay with this except the environmentalists.
Why should the Farmers be forced off their land over totally fake crisis in the first place who will prophet from this and who is behind it all?
QUOTE: “…Mr. Timmermans, a commission vice-president, said Ms van der Plas would be “very welcome” to visit Brussels after her landslide victory.
“We will then do exactly the same thing we have done before with officials, which is to explain what the European rules are,” the socialist and former foreign minister said….”. What an arrogant Prick. Timmerman’s attitude says it all as far as I am concerned.
We here already have the Eco-Fanatics who want to tear down Dams and with the help of the Federal Government and maybe Biden hey will get what they want this is all part of the Wildlands Project and Agenda 21
This article inadvertently reveals the real reason for seizing farmland: “The BBB can now use its 17 seats in the Dutch senate to try and block farm expropriations, which Mr. Rutte says are needed to lift a court-ordered stop on nitrogen-emitting construction of roads and housing.”
This roads and housing have to be built for the migrants being brought into the Netherlands. Why not stop the migration and keep the agriculture?