The European Parliament welcomed with relief, on Thursday 6 October in Strasbourg, the announcement of a forthcoming communication from the European Commission on fertilisers.
Janusz Wojciechowski, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, told MEPs concerned about high fertiliser prices and supply problems that he would present a fertiliser strategy “as soon as possible”. “We must avoid any threat to food security”, he said in response to concerns from Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Italian) and Dacian Cioloş (Renew Europe, Romanian). The Commissioner also promised to take into account the external dimension, including international partners in Africa.
In addition, the Commissioner stressed the need to find alternatives to artificial fertilisers (organic fertilisers), as mentioned by Clara Aguilera (S&D, Spanish). “These elements will be included in our communication”, he promised.
Many MEPs called for a strong and independent European industry, especially without Russian and Belarusian fertilisers.
Alexandr Vondra (ECR, Czech) recalled that the EU imports 60% of fertilisers from Russia and Belarus. He called for the postponement of the revision of the pesticide text and the development of research on biopesticides. The use of new genomic techniques in agriculture should also be allowed as a matter of urgency, he said. Mr Vondra advocated for the use of “alternative fertilisers, including composted sewage sludge”.
Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italian) argued for a European cap on gas prices. To ensure the EU’s food production capacity, “we need to invest in all available alternatives and remove constraints, such as the 170 kg nitrogen per hectare per year threshold, which limits the use of organic fertilisers”, he explained.
The Commission recalled the EU’s objective to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers by 20%. “Apparently, there will already be this 20% drop this year”, the Commissioner noted.
Planned ‘transfers’. “We must use the ‘solidarity’ lever, with aid to producers, including transfers from sectors where profits are huge”, announced Janusz Wojciechowski.
As such, Bronis Ropė (Greens/EFA, Lithuanian) called on the Commission to carry out a detailed analysis and, if necessary, as in the case of the electricity supplier, to “tax the excess profits of these companies”.
The Commissioner indicated that the national strategic plans of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will be modified to take into account the new situation regarding fertilisers (less dependence on imports, use of livestock manure...)
Several MEPs, including Eric Andrieu (S&D, French), have called for the lifting of anti-dumping duties on fertilisers imported from third countries. The Commissioner said that “caution” was needed with regard to anti-dumping duties.
“Suspending these measures on fertilisers would only worsen the situation”, says Janusz Wojciechowski. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)