Advisory body for the government comes with a critical report: ‘Politics has been looking for ways for not having to tackle problems for 25 years’

Politics and governance have brought themselves into ‘a hopeless position’ and, due to a ‘lack of strength (…) tough issues’, cannot settle: from insufficiently affordable houses to a surplus of nitrogen and water pollution. Do something about that, says the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (RLI) In a advice offered to Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Thursday. The Council advises: go on time a discussion about ‘values’ and weigh it against each other; Make decisions more frankly; Start by maintaining rules for companies and, in particular, take initiatives from citizens more seriously.

Decades, the council sets Fail and get uppolitical and administration have prevailed financial-economic successes above the disadvantages for the living environment. That is avenges now. Not only has the government left a lot to companies since the 1980s, it has also started working as a company. In addition, initiatives from citizens, such as residential cooperatives, were neglected and the « gap » was « shattering » of civil society in which citizens, companies and government worked together, filled by lobby groups.

For decades, financial-economic success above the disadvantages for the living environment. That is now afraid

Due to the ‘one -sided interplay’ of the government and business, collective interests of the living environment were ‘neglected’. Now the Netherlands is stuck with stubborn problems such as environmental pollution and a fall in biodiversity. The government has failed to take a thorough action against ‘harmful side effects’ of material prosperity, among other things by not checking companies for requirements and standards and by avoiding risks, according to the Council. « Before decisions are made, politicians ask their officials to map out all the risks and to find out how they can be excluded in advance. »

The ‘checkout culture’ in politics and society, in the media, also influences failure space. It is precisely when tackling complex living environment problems that failure space is crucial, since these problems are surrounded by uncertainties.  »

Goat paths

So the Netherlands experiences one surplace In decision -making about the living environment: it comes to a halt risk -avoiding and indecisive. Jantine Kriens, councilor of the independent advisory board of the cabinet and chairman of the committee who has prepared the advice: « Politics and administration have been looking for opportunities for not having to tackle a problem for 25 years. It is searching for goat paths. »

Take the dragging discussion about nitrogen. RLI chairman Jan Jacob van Dijk: “European guidelines stipulate that we must ensure that the nature areas do not deteriorate. We know that since the 1990s. If we had carefully made policy, if we had had a discussion about how we could keep agriculture with a strong nitrogen reduction, we had a step forward every year. Council of Statewe woke up and sat with a nitrogen crisis. « 

Much discussion in The Hague is about the very last piece of decision -making. Not strange that you are talking to each other like blind and deaf

In that crisis, every discussion about the future of agriculture is too late. Kriens: « Instead of conducting a dialogue about the values ​​that we find important in the Netherlands, we only talk about moles of nitrogen and everyone must suddenly know about measurement methods. » Van Dijk: « What we should have talked about is the relationship between space for agriculture, space for nature and biodiversity, room for living and for working. Many discussions in The Hague are about the very last piece of decision -making. Then you should not be surprised that you are talking to each other as a blind and extinguishing. »

Take the water quality. Van Dijk: « It now seems as if we have to do something for Europe when getting the objectives of the Water Framework Directive. In reality, that guideline exists because we are entitled to clean water and have an interest in the mouth of the big rivers and there are an interest that countries such as Germany, France and Belgium ensure good water quality. We have lost sight of that. »

Undiscussed

The Council finds it poignant that politics and governance consider less and less on citizens’ initiatives. While they often form the key to a way out of a crisis. Initiatives, for example, to increase resilience. « The government only puts advice for purchasing an emergency package, » says Kriens.

Moreover, citizens are becoming more suspicious because they can join in the conversation, but it is not clear what happens to their input. « The weighting of values ​​that is hidden behind government choices and measures (…) often remains undisputed, » the council writes. As a result, government policy remains incomprehensible for many people. « For example about nitrogen, manure, wind turbines, nuclear energy. The result is a lack of understanding and acceptance in society. All that is left than bullies about facts. »

Kriens: “I recently read that the Minister of Infrastructure had omitted a sentence in a decision on Schiphol’s contraction, which may reduce the noise nuisance less, without consultation with the local residents of the airport. What the minister should have done is to make a proposal with a assessment between the public interest of the rooms and the interests of the can be spent. sentence. ”

What do we want: a country that perishes with a very large gross national product, or a country where people enjoy living together?

Van Dijk: « Very often the discussion is not explicitly conducted. If you are not looking for agreement at the beginning, what purpose we want to achieve, then you will get rock -hard -polarized relationships at the end of the ride. » An example: “The Court of Audit asked whether it is wise to continue with individual heat pumps in places where collective heat networks can come. Minister Sophie Hermans (climate, VVD) replied that she wanted to continue to do so, because she did not want to affect the consumer’s freedom of choice. That was therefore a discussion about sustainability versus this has been unable to do so. Being able to send to the room.

It is obvious how things can be improved: taking the problems in the living environment seriously and discuss what the Netherlands finds important in this. Kriens: « Discuss what kind of land we want to be: a country that goes down with a very large gross national product, or a country where people live with each other in a pleasant way. And don’t be afraid if there are very contradictory values ​​on the table, that is exactly what politics is about. »

Weakness

The question is whether other European countries have or have conducted these discussions, so they do not experience any crisis. In the advice, the Council compares the Netherlands with Denmark, where agricultural agreements were concluded. The « Danish sense of community » resembles a different tradition than the « Dutch polder tradition, » the council writes. « In Scandinavian countries the emphasis is on honesty and equality, in the Netherlands on cooperation from well -understood self -interest. So the Danes therefore distribute climate costs over society from honesty and agriculture naturally participates. »

Is the Netherlands destined to end up in these types of crises? Kriens: “Well, maybe our strength, we arrange things well, have become a weakness. Maybe we have put too many things with the government and too little among communities. Our systems sometimes seem insufficiently flexible. Think of how Jews returned from concentration camps had to pay for their lease: too horrible. And also look at the system.”

To share

Mail the editors