Brussels, 16/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - France may be found guilty - again - of failing to properly transpose EU rules on nitrates and be fined several million euro if the European Court of Justice decides in its ruling over the next few months to agree with the line recommended by Advocate General Juliane Kokott on Thursday 16 January in case C-237/12. In June, the European Court of Justice found France guilty of not designating on time and also of underestimating the “vulnerable areas” that must be protected under EU Directive 91/676/EEC on protection of water from pollution from nitrates of farm origin (ruling in case C-193/12 - see EUROPE 10866), but today's conclusions relate to an appeal by the Commission in May 2012 because France has failed to do enough to comply with the directive. The Commission is unhappy about French legislation on times when fertilisers should not be used or are banned; - capacity for storing livestock farm effluents; - the calculation methods for the quantity of nitrogen to be used in balanced fertilisation; - the quantitative limits on the use of livestock effluents; - and the French rules on the use of fertilisers on sharply sloping, water-logged, frozen or snow-covered land. Kokott notes the dangers of nitrate pollution of surface or underground water supplies and the proliferation of algae in lakes and rivers (eutrophication). She lists the shortcomings in the French rules, which are virtually the same as those listed by the Commission, namely: - the lack of a ban on the use of Type 1 fertilisers for big autumn sowings; - minimal or over-limited restrictions on timing for the use of Type 1, II and III fertilisers on fields more than six months old in plains or mountains for big spring and autumn sowings; - storage capacity for livestock effluent calculated on over-short bans on usage; - allowing up to ten months for the storage of compact silage without protecting the land; - the lack of sufficiently detailed provisions on balanced fertilisation; - insufficient or wrong criteria for measuring the amount of nitrogen produced by dairy cows and other livestock; - allowing the use of livestock effluent on sloping ground near surface water; - allowing the use of fertilisers on land which was frozen and then thawed over the past 24 hours or on frozen or snow-covered land. Kokott recommends that France be found guilty. (FG/transl.fl)