Last week, Germany submitted a new Nitrate Regulation to the European Commission at the very last possible moment. The deadline to take action against nitrate pollution of German groundwater expired on Friday.
European courts have sentenced Berlin to fines of 850,000 euros per day as long as it does not comply with nitrate standards. Brussels may begin collecting the fines on Monday.
European research as early as 2019 had already identified which regions in which countries have surface water contaminated beyond acceptable levels. This pollution is mainly attributed to the spreading of manure and the use of artificial fertilizers in agriculture.
"The pace of change is insufficient to prevent harm to human health and to preserve vulnerable ecosystems. In accordance with the European Green Deal, more urgent action is now required to achieve sustainable agriculture and protect our precious water supply," recently stated Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius.
The European Commission believes that some member states need to take additional measures to comply with the Nitrate Directive. Germany and the Netherlands are among this group, along with Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, and the Czech Republic. The Netherlands is also still negotiating with the European Commission on reducing nitrate pollution in Dutch waters. Pending those talks, these countries have been granted extensions over the past two years.
In Germany, the main issue concerns which areas are designated as the most nitrate-polluted zones (‘rote gebieten’). Currently, about 2 million hectares nationwide are designated as red zones, mainly in the southwest of the country. Much stricter measures will soon apply there. Part of the problem is that the German federal states have conducted too few measurements to counter Brussels' claims with concrete data.
According to the 2019 research, most nitrate pollution in the Netherlands occurs in North Brabant. The Netherlands has submitted its seventh action program under the Nitrate Directive to Brussels, but so far it has been rejected by the European Commission’s ENVI environmental officials.
With this program, the Netherlands is trying to demonstrate how it will meet the goals of improving water quality. Those discussions are still ongoing, but the Ministry of Agriculture is pessimistic about their chances of success. On March 17, there will be another meeting of the EC Nitrate Committee.
On Monday (February 21), the European agriculture ministers will meet in Brussels for their monthly EU consultation. The three most involved Commissioners — Wojciechowski (Agriculture), Kyriakides (Health), and Sinkevicius (Environment) — will also participate. Although the nitrate issue is not formally on the agenda, it is expected that Germany will try — at least informally — to avoid the daily fine of nearly one million euros per day.