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Under the Nitrates Directive (Council Directive 91/676/EEC), Member States should monitor their waters and identify those affected or likely to be affected by pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources. They are also required to designate areas of land that drain into these waters as Nitrate Vulnerable Zones and set up appropriate action programmes to prevent and reduce the nitrates pollution.
The Commission sent a Letter of Formal Notice to Spain in November 2018 and a Reasoned Opinion in June 2020 highlighting Spain's failure to comply with the Nitrates Directive requirements.
Despite some limited progress, Spain must still take additional measures to prevent eutrophication for the whole country since the measures established to date have failed to achieve the objectives of the Directive. In addition, it should review and further designate Nitrate Vulnerable Zones in seven regions (Castilla y León, Extremadura, Galicia, Islas Baleares, Islas Canarias, Madrid and Comunidad Valenciana); include all the necessary mandatory elements in the Action Programmes for five regions (Aragón, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Extremadura and Madrid); and take additional measures for the four regions where the measures set in place have proven insufficient to achieve the objectives of the Nitrates Directive (Aragón, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, and Murcia).
The Commission considers that efforts by the Spanish authorities have to date been unsatisfactory and insufficient and is therefore referring Spain to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
December 2, 2021/ European Commission/ European Union.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission
