The European Commission is laying the groundwork to extend the application of the RENURE rules to certain types of liquid digestates derived from manure, while providing for appropriate environmental safeguards, according to the evaluation of the Nitrates Directive published on Wednesday 15 July.
The Commission believes that biodigestates have strong potential to increase the availability of biofertilisers in Europe. A first step will be the publication, later this year, of an initial preliminary scientific evaluation (see EUROPE 13804/6).
These new flexibilities for digestates had been announced on 13 May by the Commissioner for Environment, Jessika Roswall (see EUROPE 13868/6).
In general, the Nitrates Directive (1991) remains “relevant and effective”, a senior European official explained. The evaluation concludes that it has significantly reduced nitrate pollution and eutrophication phenomena, even though the problem remains significant in several regions of Europe, particularly in the Baltic Sea.
The costs of this pollution remain very high. The Commission estimates them at between €68 billion and €120 billion per year, while the cost of implementing the Directive is put at around €30 billion per year, or nearly 1% of agricultural output. “The Directive has not harmed the competitiveness of the agricultural sector. According to the evaluation, on the contrary, it has contributed to its long-term competitiveness by preserving the quality of water and natural resources,” the official said.
The Commission is not proposing to call into question the objectives of the Directive, but to simplify its implementation in order to reduce the administrative burden on farmers.
It identifies several avenues for improvement: - better coordination with other legislation, notably the Water Framework Directive; - greater use of digital tools; - more flexibility in closed periods for spreading, in order to take account of local climatic conditions rather than applying uniform timetables; - an approach based more on the environmental performance of farms, making it possible to ease certain obligations for the most exemplary farms; - maintaining the ceiling of 170 kg of organic nitrogen per hectare, while introducing greater flexibility for digestates from biogas plants, whose use as fertiliser could be facilitated.
Legislation already exists for processed manure of the RENURE type. The Commission is now working on a complementary measure concerning biodigestates (by-products of biogas production and not manure itself). These biodigestates can be used as fertilisers and offer significant potential. “They could increase the availability of organic fertilisers at a time when chemical fertiliser prices remain high, while also offering an outlet for the growing number of biogas installations operated by farmers”, an official explained.
The approach is based on the same logic as the RENURE scheme, but concerns a different product. The Commission is currently assessing the specific conditions under which biodigestates could benefit from greater flexibility (regarding the current limit of 170 kg of nitrogen per hectare), while ensuring that their spreading does not have an excessive impact on water quality.
For more details: https://aeur.eu/f/mw1 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)