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Brussels has raised a stink over the Netherlands allegedly pursuing manure protectionism by trying to force energy suppliers to use biogas made only from domestic dung and food waste.
New rules prepared by the Dutch government will require that biomethane blended with natural gas must only be made from supplies of organic waste from the Netherlands.
But the European Commission has taken issue with the move, deeming the planned restrictions to be an illegal obstacle to trade, according to a letter from the commission seen by the Financial Times.
The Hague has now postponed the introduction of the new rules by a year to January 2026 as it tussles with Brussels over the measure.
The EU in 2022 set ambitious targets to use biomethane to reduce methane emissions — a gas about 80 times more potent than Co2 — as well as gas imports from Russia. Biomethane is made from organic waste such as manure, food scraps or damaged crops, and can be blended with natural gas to heat homes and power businesses.
It is seen as a potential source of sustainable power to back-up volatile energy production from renewables such as wind and solar.
The Dutch have run up a manure mountain from their livestock herds after the EU sharply reduced the amount farmers were allowed to spread on fields because of the harmful effects of nitrogen run-off.
One solution to appease protesting farmers, proposed by the previous government, was to require gas suppliers to only use domestically produced biogas as part of the new Dutch production targets.
The Netherlands set a biogas target for 1.1bn cubic metres (bcm) annually by 2030, with a third produced from manure. That biogas target is a fivefold increase from 2022 consumption.
The Hague notified the commission of its plans in May and received a stinging rebuke from former internal market commissioner Thierry Breton.
“By only counting gas from renewable sources produced from a production plant located in the Netherlands, the Dutch authorities propose legislation that establishes a difference in treatment between domestic trade and import trade in green gas units,” Breton wrote, in a letter seen by the FT.
“As such, the legislation is to be considered as a measure having equivalent effect to a quantitative restriction on imported green gas units,” contrary to EU law, the Frenchman wrote.
Dutch officials argue that they cannot be sure of the origin of imported biogas without an EU-wide certification system. For that reason they can only be sure that Dutch production counts towards wider EU production targets set by Brussels.
Two EU diplomats said that other countries had introduced similar obligations but had simply not notified the commission, as they are bound to do under EU law.
In 2022 the EU set an annual biomethane production target of 35 bcm. In June 2024 it hit 5.2 bcm, up more than a third on the year before, according to the European Biogas Association.
The Dutch climate ministry said: “The Netherlands is keen to increase the share of green gas in the Netherlands to increase consumption and production of renewable energy and become less dependent on the import of natural gas.
“At the moment we are talking to the European Commission about this notification response to see if we can find a solution that works for the Netherlands and works for the commission.”
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