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The Commission has sent a new letter of formal notice to Belgium for failure to comply with the Nitrates Directive (Council Directive 91/676/EEC). This directive aims to protect Europe's surface water and groundwater from agricultural pollution by requiring the authorities to take measures to prevent pollution at these sources.
A first letter of formal notice was sent in April of 2014. The Commission decided to deepen the discussion with Belgium since then, particularly taking into account reports from the Flemish Region on water quality monitoring. These reports indicate noncompliance with the maximum permitted amounts of slurry since at least 2016 (when a derogation was granted under the Directive), until 2018. The derogation granted to the Flemish region allowed it to authorise nitrate levels above the normal limit per hectare if conditions were met. However, the official report indicates that the quantities actually used in many cases far exceeded maximum values. To date, there are no indications that these exceedances have stopped. For the Wallonia Region, the current action programme on nitrates (PGDA 3) does not include all the measures required by the Directive. Despite signs of improved groundwater quality and the adoption of new measures from the start of the proceedings in 2013, the Commission believes that certain measures should be further reinforced and backed by science in order to ensure compliance of water quality with the Directive (periodical spreading bans, spreading of manure on inclined land, keeping record of the quantities of fertilisers spread on the land, etc.). Belgium now has two months to respond to the arguments put forward by the Commission. Otherwise, the Commission may decide to send it a reasoned opinion.
Wednesday, November 27, 2019/ CE/ European Union.
https://ec.europa.eu
