Germany escapes a million-euro fine from the EU in the dispute over nitrate-contaminated water. As a spokeswoman for the EU Commission confirmed on Thursday, the authority discontinued a corresponding procedure against the Federal Republic. On Wednesday, new fertiliser rules were launched in Berlin.
In the event of a conviction, Germany would have faced a fine of at least eleven million euros and a penalty payment of up to around 800,000 euros per day, according to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. The penalty payment could therefore have been imposed retroactively from a first judgment in 2018.
Nitrate residues in groundwater if too much fertiliser is applied
The dispute over fertilizer pollution 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 harms the environment and poses health risks to humans.
Nitrate is important for plant growth. But if too much fertiliser is applied, residues accumulate in groundwater as well as in streams, rivers and the sea. Nitrite is formed from nitrate as a result of chemical processes, which can be harmful to humans. In drinking water treatment, nitrate sometimes has to be laboriously filtered out of the groundwater in order to comply with the limit values. Stricter fertiliser rules had already come into force in 2020 after tough negotiations. However, the EU Commission criticized this in mid-2021.
The Fertiliser Regulation, which came into force in 2020, may also not comply with the ECJ ruling, EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius wrote to the then Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) and former Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner (CDU). Among other things, the EU Commissioner criticised the fact that areas with high nitrate pollution in groundwater and harmful nutrient accumulation in Germany had not been correctly designated.