2023-07-10 16:15:21
The Dutch exception to the European Nitrates Directive, the so-called ‘derogation’, has not done the soil any good. Companies that might make use of the exceptional position used it to pollute the soil even more. This is what the European Court of Auditors says in a report published on Monday regarding measures in the EU countries regarding soil quality. This is particularly critical of the Netherlands, but also of the European Commission. The latter says it intends to adopt all the Court’s recommendations.
The EU must do much more to restore the soil, says the European Court of Auditors. In the first place, it should demand better data from the Member States, which are often not to be found in Brussels. But it must also ensure better agreements and compliance with those agreements.
The Court finds that the European soil will deteriorate further in the near future, even though there has long been a policy on paper to prevent this. In practice, little of this materialized in European agricultural policy. The country that has messed up the most is the Netherlands, which asked for an exception to the policy six times but did not use the extra time to make improvements.
The government is particularly to blame
The Dutch soil is the most polluted in the EU. The nitrogen surplus has long been measured and found to be too high, but it still increased by 10 percent in the last measured period, between 2016 and 2019. In that period, the Dutch government used the European agricultural money that was also intended to tackle that problem, not for that purpose.
In the years that followed, even more manure was produced in the Netherlands. In 2021, three of the four dairy farms produced more animal manure than the maximum that might be applied on their own land. Too much manure was produced at 92 percent of the livestock farms.
The six derogations that the Netherlands received from 2002, says the Court of Audit, have actually served as an invitation to livestock farmers to keep even more animals. A derogation has also had this effect in Ireland. “The livestock farmers thereby undermine soil and water quality,” says the Court of Audit.
The government is mainly to blame. The Netherlands should have earmarked money for areas with acute soil problems. That didn’t happen. The current government plans are also rather one-sided, according to the Court of Audit.
The Netherlands did not violate any European rules. Because the soil quality has deteriorated, the Court of Audit suspects that the European rules should be stricter. Last week, the European Commission presented new rules for soil quality. However, no hard goals are mentioned in it.
Timeline
The Dutch provinces are nevertheless very concerned regarding the new rules. The provinces acknowledge that the Dutch soil is seriously polluted, but fear a timeline that is too fast. Now the only stated goal is that the pollution must be cleaned up by 2050.
The Netherlands is also at the forefront of the resistance of countries and political groups related to agriculture to the Nature Restoration Act, which is intended to ensure that biodiversity in Europe increases once more. This week, the European Parliament will vote on that law in Strasbourg.
Read also:
The Netherlands loses manure privilege. ‘This will have consequences for many companies’
For years, the EU allowed Dutch dairy farmers to apply more animal manure to the land than most other European countries. But that exception will expire in 2026. That has major consequences.
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