EU discontinues proceedings
Germany escapes millions in fines for nitrate
06/01/2023 1:39 p.m
Nitrate is important for plant growth. However, excess fertilizer is harmful to the environment and poses health risks to humans. In the past, the German way of dealing with the problem met with little understanding in Brussels. But now Berlin has been able to convince the EU with new rules.
Germany escapes a million euro fine from the EU in the dispute over nitrate-polluted water. As a spokeswoman for the EU Commission confirmed, the authority discontinued corresponding proceedings against the Federal Republic. New fertilizer rules were introduced in Berlin on Wednesday. According to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Germany would have faced a penalty of at least eleven million euros and a fine of up to around 800,000 euros a day in the event of a conviction.
The penalty payment could therefore have been imposed retrospectively from a first judgment in 2018. The dispute over exposure to fertilizers has been going on for years. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) had already condemned Germany in June 2018 for violating EU law because the government had done too little against nitrates in groundwater for years. Nitrates mostly come from agricultural fertilizers. Excess is harmful to the environment and poses health risks to people.
Nitrate is important for plant growth. But if too much fertilizer is used, residues accumulate in groundwater, streams, rivers and the sea. Chemical processes produce nitrite from nitrate, which can be harmful to humans. When treating drinking water, nitrate has to be filtered out of the groundwater, sometimes in a laborious process, in order to comply with the limit values.
After tough negotiations, stricter fertilizer regulations came into force as early as 2020. However, the EU Commission criticized this in mid-2021. The Fertilizer Ordinance, which came into force in 2020, may not comply with the ECJ ruling either, wrote EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius to the then Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze and ex-Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner. Among other things, the EU Commissioner complained that areas with high levels of nitrate pollution in the groundwater and harmful nutrient accumulation in Germany had not been correctly identified.
“Those who endanger water will be held accountable”
The Association of Municipal Companies (VKU) described the termination of the procedure as a milestone. VKU Vice President Karsten Specht emphasized: “Only with a significant reduction in nitrate inputs can we succeed in protecting our drinking water resources in the long term.” The federal and state governments would have to implement all promised measures quickly and comprehensively. The VKU represents more than 1,500 municipal companies, including those in the water supply sector.
The law introduced by the cabinet on Wednesday is intended, among other things, to create the basis for fertilizer data to be checked and evaluated by companies. This monitoring is intended to determine how effective the fertilizer rules are. The database should then make it possible to develop more targeted measures in the event of future changes to the fertilizer regulations – for example to relieve farms that already work in a water-saving manner. “Anyone who endangers water is held accountable. Those who protect water should be relieved,” explained Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir. The draft is now in the Bundestag. The Federal Council still has to agree. The law is expected to come into force this year.