Federal Council rejects new fertilizer law
The new fertilizer law has failed for the time being at the resistance of the states on Friday: The Bundesrat rejected the legislative amendment. Previously, among others, the Minister-President of Brandenburg, Dietmar Woidke, and the Prime Minister of Hesse, Boris Rhein, had clearly stated in the debate that their states would not agree.
The states are just as opposed as the German Farmers' Association to the so-called material flow balance - the counterbalance of input and output of nutrients on agriculturally used areas. According to this, more businesses are supposed to keep records of how many nutrients are taken away from the soil through farming and how many are supplied to it through fertilizer, in order to apply the polluter pays principle for nitrate contamination.
This is criticized by many as additional bureaucracy without recognizable benefit. The Bundestag had passed the new fertilizer law at the beginning of June. It was supposed to have been completed already in the previous year.
The Federal Council was expected to give its approval to the amendment to the fertilizer law, which would have implemented the material flow balance, but their opposition followed the Bundesrat's rejection of the legislative amendment. The Federal Council's stance against the amendment could potentially lead to a revision of the Fertilizer law.
