Agriculture Minister says she didn't abuse her power by withholding critical report

Caretaker agriculture minister Femke Wiersma thinks that she did not abuse her authority by blocking the publication of farmers’ business data. Wiersma stated in a letter to parliament that she is planning on appealing the Overijssel court’s ruling, which last month overturned the minister’s decision not to publish the data.

The data in question concerns emissions from thousands of livestock farms that have been requested by the media under the Open Government Act (Woo). However, the BBB minister believes that farmers should be informed in advance that their data will be made public. Wiersma decided to block the publication in an earlier court case last January.

The journalists then took the case to court, claiming that the minister was abusing her authority with the decision. The court ruled in their favor. Wiersma wrote, "In my opinion, this course of action reflects careful governance and certainly does not constitute an abuse of power." She also intends to ask the court to temporarily suspend the publication while the appeal is ongoing.

The minister wants all individual farmers to receive a letter about the planned publication and to have the opportunity to respond through a formal consultation process. Wiersma expects this procedure to take between six months and a year.

Officials at the Ministry of Agriculture advised the minister not to file an appeal, according to an annex to the letter sent to Parliament. The advisers were primarily concerned with the legal interpretation of the term "abuse of power."

In a discussion about this advice, the minister stated that she has a "fundamental objection" to the court’s ruling. The officials reminded her of the legal meaning of the term, which refers to using authority in a way other than it was intended.