The European Commission's Nitrate Committee will decide this week whether Ireland will continue to be allowed to apply more manure on its pastures than other EU countries. This so-called derogation expires at the end of this year, and those for the Netherlands and Denmark have already expired.
Last month, the Irish government reached a provisional agreement with EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswell on additional and stricter measures against nitrate pollution. After a recent report showed increased water pollution, Dublin decided on stricter nitrate criteria and measurements on a much broader scale (‘upstream at the source’) across hundreds of monitoring points.
In this way, the Irish want to be able to demonstrate regionally where agriculture sufficiently reduces water pollution. Commissioner Roswell wants to give Ireland an extra three years for this (extension of derogation), but she will leave the final decision on Wednesday to the experts on the Nitrate Committee and then to the approval of the other EU countries. According to her, much has been done in Ireland, but more needs to be done to reach legally sustainable decisions.
Nutrients from agriculture are cited as an important cause of water pollution. Irish agricultural organizations fear that the Nitrate Committee will impose unattainable and unworkable conditions. This pattern is also visible in the Netherlands and Denmark. Water quality is becoming an increasingly decisive factor: without demonstrable improvement, no exemption will be granted.
Denmark is now working with regional authorities, environmental groups, and agricultural organizations on a nationwide approach (‘tripartite’) to tackle water pollution, which is being watched in Brussels with more than average interest. The country is tightening its approach to nitrate pollution with new quotas for farmers and additional nature reserves. The measure is intended to further reduce nitrogen runoff into water.
In the Netherlands, on the other hand, there has been a deadlock for more than fifteen years between the government, the agricultural sector, and environmental organizations over whether or not to reduce nitrogen pollution. Courts have already issued binding rulings on this, but many agricultural organizations do not want to cooperate with mandatory reductions in livestock numbers.
The Dutch caretaker Prime Minister Dick Schoof recently said that in two weeks at the EU summit in Brussels he will again push for renewed derogation for Dutch agriculture, in exchange for approval of the EU Mercosur free trade agreement. Final decisions on that agreement are also to be made in EU bodies over the next two weeks. Next week in the European Parliament, attempts will be made to attach new conditions to that agreement for better compensation for European farmers.