The suggestion of the rapporteur for the opinion, Jan Huitema (ALDE, Netherlands), that advantage should be taken of the evaluation of the proposal on fertilisers to amend Directive 91/676/EEC on the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates brought criticism in the European Parliament’s agriculture committee on Wednesday 12 April (see EUROPE 11542).
Parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee is the responsible committee on the proposal revising the rules on making products available on the fertiliser market. Three other committees also have to adopt opinions, thus making passage more complicated.
The proposal seeks to provide the opportunity for organic fertilising products to enter the internal market, providing more freedom of choice for farmers.
Huitema wants to amend the nitrates regulation to change the definition of “livestock effluent” to ensure that fertilisers containing processed manure do not suffer undue discrimination. A number of MEPs, including Clara Eugenia Aguilera Garcia (S&D, Spain), Éric Andrieu (S&D, France) and Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium), argued that there was no point in re-opening the “Pandora’s box” that is the nitrates directive through this regulation. Rapporteur Huitema stated that it was not his wish to “re-open” the nitrates directive and he hoped that a compromise could be reached among the groups. Over 500 amendments have been put down in the agriculture committee and nine compromise amendments presented. Further meetings of the political groups will be necessary to come to compromise amendments. The deadline set for putting down amendments in the agriculture committee is 30 May.
Aguilera highlighted the very limited room for manoeuvre the agriculture committee has on this matter. She was sceptical about bio-fertilisers, expressing the view that the technology was not yet fully developed. Peter Jahr (EPP, Germany) suggested that the chairs of the relevant committees should meet to come up with a solution, rather than allowing the four committees all “to go off in different directions”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)