11.8.2023
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 283/55 Thursday 16 February 2023
12.
Recalls, in this context, that the mid-term review of the multiannual financial framework could make it possible to strengthen the CAP budget and to take into account the severe impact inflation has had on input costs and farm incomes; encourages the EU to seek alternative sources of funding outside the CAP, to develop the relevant measures to ensure the affordability and availability of fertilisers in the EU, and to alleviate the economic impact of the fertiliser deficit;
13.
Reminds the Member States of the possibility to develop, in the framework of their CAP strategic plans, specific eco-schemes to promote organic fertilisation or the greater development of optimum soil pH levels, which would require less fertiliser use and result in the maximum utilisation of limited supplies, or sectoral interventions in the ‘other sectors’ chapter, which may include, among other things, measures to stimulate the development of alternatives to mineral fertilisation, to support joint and cooperative approaches to shortage scenarios, and to apply innovation and technology to reduce fertiliser use;
14.
Recognises and gives differential support to the role played by agri-food cooperatives, owing to their logistical, organisational and economic capacity to promote local fertiliser manufacturing projects, both from livestock and alternatives to fossil fuel-based fertilisers;
15.
Calls on the Commission to support Member States in identifying solutions for the efficient use of CAP strategic plans to help address the situation of fertilisers; encourages the Member States to revise, where necessary, their CAP national strategic plans to close gaps in order to optimise and reduce fertiliser use and nutrient losses, incentivise the replacement and complementation of mineral fertiliser by nutrients from organic sources and accelerate suitable fertilisation measures, in order to secure soil fertility and optimal yields, while preventing carbon leakage in regions with inferior production standards; emphasises that these revisions should be made in a timely manner, provided that the quantity and quality of production is not reduced, and should not be counted as an amendment to their CAP national strategic plans, which is only allowed once a year; highlights the clear benefits that crop rotation with legumes can offer as a fertilisation measure in this context, given its capacity for nitrate fixation, thereby reducing the need for fertilising inputs; calls on the Commission to ensure that all Member States avail their farmers of the option to use catch crops in the context of Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions in the CAP;
16.
Encourages the Member States to fully exploit the potential of the recently adopted Regulation (EU) 2019/1009, which revised the rules on the making available on the market of EU fertilising products and enables the opening of the EU single market to organic and bio-waste-based fertilisers by granting them access to CE marking;
17.
Calls on the Commission to update the definition of livestock manure in Union legislation by making a clear distinction between processed and non-processed manure in order to properly regulate them in view of their different compositions and risks in terms of pollution;
18.
Calls on the Commission to collect scientific evidence on the effects of fermented manure and other processed organic nutrients in terms of climate benefits and the risk of pollution to water; calls on the Commission to exploit the benefits for the environment of using fermented manure and other processed organic nutrients, if scientifically proven, by promoting their use and possibly adapting legislation;
19.
Regrets the fact that the communication does not serve to facilitate the use of organic alternatives to chemical fertilisers, such as RENURE, digestate from bio-waste obtained by the anaerobic digestion of livestock effluents, and any other effective and verified instrument, which can be used both in agriculture and in the livestock sector, and calls for Annex III to the Nitrates Directive to be amended to this end, while continuing to uphold the principles of efficiency and safety; calls, in the meantime, in the light of the current crisis, for a temporary derogation, as RENURE products and digestate have the potential to substitute chemical fertilisers without resulting in additional emissions, nitrogen losses or manure production; calls on the Commission to propose, without further delay, and at the latest in its upcoming integrated nutrient management action plan (INMAP), legislative measures to implement the legal and safe application of the criteria as developed by the Joint Research Centre to enable the safe use of RENURE above the thresholds established for Nitrate Vulnerable Zones by the Nitrates Directive;