Europeans Reach Accord on Cadmium, Organic/Recycled Fertilizers
European Parliament and Council negotiators today agreed to new rules easing access to the European Union single market for fertilizers made from organic or recycled materials and setting limits for cadmium.
The agreed text introduces limits for heavy metals, such as cadmium, in phosphate fertilizers to reduce health and environmental risks. The limits for cadmium content in “CE marked” phosphate fertilizers will be 60 mg/kg as from the date of application of the regulation (i.e. three years after its entry into force).
A review clause requires the European Commission to review the limit values, with a view to assessing the feasibility of reducing them, four years after the date of application of the new rules (i.e. seven years after entry into force).
The co-legislators also agreed on a voluntary “low cadmium” label. Where the fertilizing product has a cadmium content lower than 20 mg/kg, the statement “Low cadmium (Cd) content” or similar, or a visual representation to that effect, may be added.
Sufficient incentives should be provided to develop decadmiation technologies and to manage cadmium-rich hazardous waste by means of relevant financial resources, the lawmakers added.
With regard to boosting the use of organic and waste-based fertilizers, existing EU rules on fertilizers cover mainly conventional fertilizers, typically extracted from mines or produced chemically, with high energy-consumption and CO2 production. Diverging national rules make it difficult for producers of organic fertilizers to sell and use them across the EU single market.
The new legislation, provisionally agreed on today promotes increased use of recycled materials for producing fertilizers, thus helping to develop the circular economy, while reducing dependence on imported nutrients. It also eases market access for innovative, organic fertilizers, which would give farmers and consumers a wider choice and promote green innovation, and establishes EU-wide quality, safety and environmental criteria for “EU” fertilisers (i.e. those which can be traded in the whole EU single market), according to the European Parliament statement.
Internal Market Committee rapporteur, Mihai Ţurcanu (EPP, RO), said: “I am pleased that today we finally reached a very good agreement after long negotiations, technical meetings and a huge amount of work that has been done with four Presidencies of the Council in the past two years. Today’s agreement represents a success for all parties involved and the European Parliament”.
The provisional agreement still needs to be confirmed by the EU member states’ ambassadors (Coreper) and by Parliament’s Internal Market Committee. The draft regulation will then be put to a vote by the full Parliament in an upcoming plenary session and formally approved by the EU Council of Ministers.