Here’s what the July 1 deadline means
If you start to get dizzy about which agreements are made and when, it is not surprising with all those different dates. We will now stick to the deadline that is coming up for all provinces within two weeks: 1 July. A year ago, nitrogen minister Christianne van der Wal instructed the provinces to come up with concrete plans for nitrogen before that one date. Gelderland will not make it; Utrecht says yes.
This plan is called the Utrecht Rural Area Program (UPLG). In it, the province tells Van der Wal how it wants to work on a ‘vital, future-proof and sustainable rural area’ in the coming years. What does that mean? “We are coming up with a plan in outline,” said a spokesperson for the province. “We want to get started quickly, but that makes it difficult for the government. After all, they still don’t have an Agricultural Agreement. That’s why we can’t be very specific in our package of measures yet.”