This is what VVD MP Jeroen van Wijngaarden says before the debate. “We will do it ourselves.” Van Wijngaarden does not want to anticipate financial compensation and how much it should be. Groningen wants at least 30 billion euros to compensate for gas extraction.
“We need to work on the damage and reinforcement process first,” says Van Wijngaarden. “People are subject to an inimitable legal bureaucracy, and something has to be done about it first.”
Not new
The first debate on the poll report was delayed for a month and a half, despite the insistence of a number of opposition parties that they wanted to speak before the report. The government has not yet responded to the research report presented at the end of February. A debate with the cabinet will also follow.
In the report, the commission of inquiry concluded that for decades the safety of Groningen residents was subordinated to economic and financial interests. According to the committee, the Netherlands owes “a debt of honour” to the residents of Groningen. The Groningen gas fields really need to be closed by 2024 at the latest, the committee wrote in its report.
‘We were previously told that profit comes before people, so the House of Representatives could and should intervene’
“The conclusions that the committee is now drawing are rightly harsh, but not new,” says Sandra Beckerman, Member of Parliament SP. «Comparable conclusions have been drawn previously, for example by the OVV or the United Nations. It has already been pointed out that profits come before people. At that moment, the House of Representatives could and should have intervened.
Own role
Beckerman therefore first of all wants to talk about the role that the lower house itself played in the problems of Groningen. He criticizes the time it takes Prime Minister Rutte to arrive at an answer. ‘The reaction to the benefits scandal came within a month, Groningen is still waiting. Why doesn’t he take responsibility?’
“Rutte’s interrogation was a painful deception”
Beckerman wants a quick debate with the cabinet, but will also take a step towards the role of four Rutte cabinets today and tomorrow. “If anything was a painful disappointment, it was Rutte’s interrogation in which he said, ‘I hadn’t known about this for years.'”
Investments
Most parliamentary groups in the House of Representatives are expected to embrace the committee’s conclusions and recommendations today. Claims handling must become “milder, easier and more humane” for residents, Groningen residents must quickly gain clarity on strengthening, and substantial investments must be made in the region, advises the committee.
Beckerman: ‘Repairing the damage and strengthening homes must be key, and investments must also be made in the future of this area.’ Member of Parliament SP wants to give control of these investments to the inhabitants of Groningen themselves. “Only then will the people of Groningen get the idea that politics and all those billions are there for them too.”