Directive 91/676 / EEC (nitrates directive)

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Directive 91/676 / EEC

Title: Council Directive 91/676 / EEC of 12 December 1991 on the protection of water against pollution by nitrates from agricultural sources
Designation:
(not official) 		Nitrates Directive
Scope: EEA
Legal matter: Environmental protection , water law
Procedure overview: European Commission
European Parliament
IPEX Wiki
To be
implemented in national law by: 		12/20/1993
Implemented by: Fertilizer Ordinance (Germany)
Reference: OJ L 375 of 31.12.1991, pp. 1-8
Full text Consolidated version (not official)
basic version
The regulation must have been implemented in national law.
Please note the information on the current version of legal acts of the European Union !

The Nitrates Directive is a directive that is intended to prevent the pollution of groundwater and surface water by nitrates from agriculture, primarily through fertilization . The application of rules of good professional practice in agriculture should be promoted.

The directive was to be implemented in national law by December 20, 1993. In Germany, this implementation did not take place until January 26, 1996 through the Fertilizer Ordinance . The changes to the European directive from 2008 were finally adopted with the amendment of the Fertilizer Ordinance in 2012.

According to the directive, the member states are also obliged to draw up national action programs to reduce nitrate pollution for a period of four years each. In Germany, this obligation has been taken over by a new paragraph 62a in the Water Resources Act .

The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety are compiling the results of the program in a “nitrate report”; the most recent nitrate report to be published dates back to 2012. The action programs and nitrate reports (2008 and 2012) for Austria are published by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management .

The limit was set at 50 milligrams of nitrate per liter. This value is exceeded in many places in Germany, sometimes values ​​of 200 to 300 milligrams per liter have been measured in the groundwater.

At the instigation of the EU Commission, the European Court of Justice ruled in infringement proceedings against Germany in June 2018 that the Fertilizer Ordinance is not sufficient to meet the obligations of the Nitrates Directive. On July 25, 2019, the European Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Germany in accordance with Article 260 of the Lisbon Treaty because of the ongoing violation of the Nitrates Directive . The Commission again urged Germany to implement the judgment of the European Court of Justice from June 2018. “ There is an urgent need for action by the German authorities. The water quality in Germany shows no signs of improvement. The quality of the groundwater in Germany is among the worst in Europe, ”said EU Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nitrate Report 2012. PDF ( Memento from May 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Website of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management on the Nitrate Directive
  3. ↑ EU warns about nitrate pollution Why Klöckner and Schulze have to go to Brussels for the slurry report. In: Der Tagesspiegel. August 28, 2019, accessed October 27, 2019 .
  4. ^ Nitrates Directive: infringement proceedings against Germany. Press release of the European Commission of May 4, 2016
  5. ↑ CURIA - documents. Retrieved September 17, 2019 .
  6. ↑ European Commission: Nitrate in groundwater: Commission urges Germany to implement the ECJ ruling. July 25, 2019, accessed November 6, 2019 .

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