Flemish Parliament remains deadlocked over nitrogen deal

This Tuesday afternoon, March 7, the Flemish Parliament, in an extraordinary session, discusses the unprecedented government crisis in Flanders due to the nitrogen agreement. Flanders has to decide how to reduce its nitrogen pollution due to its commonly widespread but polluting farming practices, with a lot of livestock. 

Last Sunday night, negotiations on nitrogen imploded. For the government party CD&V, Flemish Prime Minister Jan Jambon's ultimate proposal did not go far enough and the party left the negotiating table. Afterwards, N-VA and Open VLD agreed on a new nitrogen bill without CD&V.

However, Jambon still wants to complete a nitrogen deal with CD&V on Friday, March 10. "If we can't figure it out, then the damage is incalculable," he says in the Flemish Parliament.

On Friday, Flemish Minister of the Environment Zuhal Demir (N-VA) will present the next step in the procedure for the nitrogen dossier to the government table. The question is whether that is not a dead end, because the political party CD&V still does not support the plans and Open VLD also says that decisions can be made "only by consensus". 

At N-VA and Open VLD they hope that CD&V is still willing to support the text, but CD&V does not seem to be planning to. For the Flemish Christian Democrats, the current text offers, among other things, insufficient prospects for young farmers.

But the Flemish liberals hope that CD&V can still support the text. "We have to get out of this with three parties and avoid a situation of ungovernability," says a liberal source to Belga News Agency.

(VIV)

^{#FlandersNewsService | Flemish farmers take their tractors to Brussels city center to protest against proposed new rules to reduce nitrogen emissions, on 3 March 2023. ​ ©BELGA PHOTO (HATIM KAGHAT)}