EU Water Law

At the core of Directive 91/676/EEC are those rules relating to periods when the use of certain types of fertiliser on agricultural land is prohibited and the capacity of storage vessels for livestock manure must exceed that required for storage throughout the longest period during which land application in the vulnerable zone is prohibited. This has practical consequences that were illustrated in case-law.

For example, while a Member State is free to limit the use of livestock manure by means of use or input standards for phosphates, it must always demonstrate that the conversion method which it uses for that purpose is such as to ensure that the amount of livestock manure which is allowed to be applied to land in accordance with the phosphate standards does not exceed the limits on nitrogen fixed by the Directive (case C-322/00 Commission v Netherlands, para. 118). And if the local climate has rainy periods during which, if fertilisers are applied to land there is a high risk that rainwater flowing across the ground will result in the pollution of waters by nitrates, this makes it necessary for the Member State to specify periods during which such use of fertilisers, including inorganic fertilisers, is inappropriate (case C-322/00 Commission v Netherlands, para. 137).