German court rules that the government must start with a nitrate action programme

The German Federal Court has ruled that the country’s current manure policy is insufficient to meet the objectives of the European Nitrates Directive. According to the ruling, which cannot be appealed, Germany must establish a dedicated nitrate action programme in line with European requirements.

The case was brought to the court by the environmental organisation Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH). The choice to go to court was not easy, explains Reinhild Benning, Senior Advisor for Agricultural Policy at DUH. “A lower court ruled before that we had not made use of all the usual participation procedures, and therefore were not the right party to bring this case to court.”

No separate nitrate action programme

Deutsche Umwelthilfe appealed this decision because, as Benning explains, there is no separate nitrate action programme in Germany. “That means there was no standard participation procedure at all. The Netherlands, I believe, is already implementing its eighth nitrate programme, but Germany so far has merely referred to nitrate objectives within other pieces of legislation. That is something completely different.”

Nitrate levels are rising

The Federal Court agreed with that reasoning. Not only did it recognise Deutsche Umwelthilfe as a legitimate party in the case, but it also ordered the German government to develop a dedicated nitrate action programme to achieve the target of a maximum of 50 milligrams of nitrate per litre of groundwater. “That target is currently not met at 26 percent of the monitoring stations in Germany,” says Benning. “At some other stations, nitrate levels in groundwater are actually rising, while the soil’s filtering capacity is declining in large parts of the country. So there really is a problem, and it is time to act.”

European pressure

The European Union has already urged Germany to take action in the past. In 2018, the country was convicted by the European Court of Justice for its failure to adequately implement the Nitrates Directive. “In addition to this ruling, which the government cannot simply ignore because it cannot be appealed, we also hope for renewed pressure from Brussels. We want the government to quickly come up with a nitrate action programme that truly deserves that name.”

Conflicting interests

Benning finds it disappointing that a court ruling was necessary to push the German government to comply with European commitments. “These commitments were made by the government itself, but in their implementation, the interests of the agricultural sector and the food industry have consistently outweighed the public’s right to clean drinking water. That must change now.”

This article was published first on the Dutch platform for water professionals H2O Magazine