Environment
Procedure ended: Germany avoids millions in fines
Germany escapes a million euro fine from the EU in the dispute over nitrate-polluted water. photo
© Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
A dispute over nitrate-polluted water between Brussels and Berlin that has been going on for years has been settled. Now the EU Commission has come to a conclusion.
Germany escapes a million euro fine from the EU in the dispute over nitrate-polluted water. As a spokeswoman for the EU Commission of the German Press Agency confirmed today, the authority stopped a corresponding procedure against the Federal Republic. New fertilizer rules were introduced in Berlin yesterday.
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 problem with nitrates
The dispute over exposure to fertilizers has been going on for years. The European Court of Justice 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 regulation that came into force in 2020 may also not comply with the ECJ ruling, wrote EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius to the then Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) and ex-Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner (CDU). 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.
reactions
The Federal Government welcomed the end of the procedure. Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) said today: “The fact that we were able to avert the high fines is a great success to which many have contributed.” After years of uncertainty for farmers, the fertilizer rules are now being made future-proof, which is also recognized in Brussels. Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) spoke of a very long road with difficult negotiations.
Özdemir said this is “a milestone” set by Brussels and not the end. The Association of Municipal Companies (VKU) also 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.