The Federal Republic now faces fines from the European Union for failing to implement the EU Nitrate Directive. Brussels had suspended the imposition of already decided fines because Ă–zdemir had promised shortly after taking office that he would reduce soil and drinking water pollution caused by spreading manure in vulnerable nature areas.
With his latest compromise, Ă–zdemir pressured the CDU parliamentary group to take a concrete stand on this difficult dossier. Over the past years, the CDU has been highly critical of proposals from the now-defunct 'traffic light coalition' but has submitted few of its own proposals and kept its options open.
CDU officials in nine states believe that Berlin, by imposing a substance balance for each individual farm, is attempting to transfer state competencies to the BMEL ministry in Berlin. They also believe that Ă–zdemir is trying to implement the fertilizer law rejected in Brussels within Germany.
The CDU representatives state that restrictions on nitrate pollution should be set per region, not per farm. Furthermore, the states believe that farms in polluted areas that can prove water savings should be exempt from stricter regulations.
Ă–zdemir has himself brought the discussion about his fertilizer law to a dead end, said Steffen Bilger, vice-chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. He promised months ago to withdraw his substance balance proposal but has only come back with new variants, Bilger criticized.
The breakdown of German political consultations between the federal government and the states means that a new German government must ensure a new manure law. Since the CDU is likely to win the elections in February and become a governing party, the CDU members must still make definitive choices on many legislative proposals—including those imposed by the EU.
Agricultural policy in Germany is determined not only by the BMEL ministry and federal parliamentary groups in Berlin but mainly by politicians and administrators in the sixteen German states. As a result, policymaking in German agricultural policy is primarily the outcome of (lengthy and difficult) consultative models.