Overview
- The cabinet last week unveiled a plan to reduce agricultural nitrogen emissions by more than 40% by 2035 and to create 500‑metre and 1,000‑metre buffer zones around the most overloaded Natura 2000 sites.
- Farmers mobilised to provincial seats and to The Hague to hand in petitions and press MPs about the plan’s threat to livelihoods and investment in stables.
- The mayor of The Hague issued an emergency order limiting tractors in the city to twenty, police blocked extra convoys at the Zoetermeerse Rijweg and five people were arrested after trying to enter the city.
- North Brabant’s long‑deferred staldeadline of 1 July has technically arrived but an ongoing court case and past deadline shifts mean exceptions or delays are still possible for some farmers.
- Many operational details remain unsettled: per‑area rules and permitted farm intensity (for example a cited cap of 2.6 cows per hectare) will be set later with phased deadlines to 2028 and 2035, and political negotiations could change the final law.