'Liekuut' opinion pieces overview

Adriaan J. Wierenga, emergency law specialist, argues in favour of a thorough revision and simplification of the national emergency law before the next crisis arrives. Proper legislation could save lives.

According to Herman Bröring, Professor of Administrative Law at the UG, the province is a level of government that is not always understood by its residents, despite the fact that it has an important function. 

For a long time, we believed that it was possible to 'engineer' the Netherlands – and therefore the countryside. But now that the issues of climate change and the energy transition are looming, we are reaching the limits of what that engineering can achieve, says Tialda Haartsen , Professor of Rural Geography at the University of Groningen. And that means we need to rethink the way we design the countryside.

According to Prof. Mathijs Sanders, Professor of Modern Dutch Literature, the school subject Dutch has wrongfully become the subject that does not receive its deserved attention. ‘Dutch is too often seen as a “service subject” in which skills are taught to serve other subjects. If we want to respect and stimulate the pupils’ creative intelligence, we need to offer teachers career prospects and bring academic research into classrooms.

During the past few years, the government has increased the energy tax on natural gas and lowered it for electricity. In doing so, the government wants to stimulate households to choose for electrical options, such as heat pumps or electric stoves, to generate heat. That's a nice idea, says Marlies Hesselman, lecturer of International Law, but we need to be careful in order to ensure that everyone can participate. In the case of energy, we are not concerned with the decisions people want to make, but with the decisions people can make.

A weighty report by the Groningen parliamentary committee of inquiry on natural gas extraction is on the table. According to the committee, the government owes a debt of honour to the people of Groningen. Dr Nienke Busscher says this does not solely mean fair compensation. In her opinion, it is also time for reliable policies that are close to the residents.

During the National Week Without Meat and Dairy, there is a call to avoid eating animal products. But will that make a difference? Can you help save the world by skipping the occasional steak? Ellen van der Werff, assistant professor of Environmental Psychology at the University of Groningen, says you can.