On Wednesday 4 June, the court in The Hague ruled that the nature permit previously granted to Schiphol is inadequate. You can read what that means for Schiphol in this article.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature granted us a nature permit in September 2023. A significant milestone, as this meant that we complied with the relevant rules and regulations. Several nature and environmental groups did not agree with this and filed a court case. The court in The Hague ruled on this case last week and overturned the nature permit.
The judge's ruling shows that we largely submitted the application correctly and properly identified the existing rights and impacts of aviation. The permit falls short only on the so-called additionality requirement.
This requirement was tightened following a State Council ruling on internal offsetting on 18 December 2024. We had already applied for our nature permit in 2020 and obtained it in 2023. Therefore, although we provided additional information during the appeal process in this court case to still meet the additionality requirement, the court ruled that this was not sufficient.
We will discuss this ruling with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature. Additionality requires a national solution from the government.
In the meantime, we will amend the permit application based on the ruling. We will also appeal. This ruling will not have any effect on the number of flights to and from Schiphol in the short term.