Dutch parliament cuts summer break short to debate contaminated eggs crisis

The Tweede Kamer is cutting its summer holiday short in order to debate the fipronil contamination of eggs from Dutch poultry farms with Public Health Minister Edith Schippers and State Secretary Martijn van Dam of Economic Affairs, NU.nl reports.

PvdD parliamentarian Esther Ouwehand submitted a request for a debate on Thursday, and a parliamentary majority agreed. The VVD and CDA think that now both Schippers and Van Dam responded to written questions on the matter, the time has come to debate it. SP is also in favor of the debate and GroenLinks said it won't vote against it. With that, a parliamentary majority is for a debate.

Only the parliamentarians that deal with Economic Affairs will cut their holidays short for this debate. Having it before the end of the break is also necessary because Van Dam is leaving for his new job at NPO on September 1st, four days before the Tweede Kamer recess officially ends.

The fipronil contamination resulted in the NVWA recalling millions of eggs from supermarkets because they may contain too high levels of the toxic pesticide. Production was halted at some 200 poultry farms, as were eggs exports. The damage to the Dutch poultry sector is estimated to be at least 150 million euros.