There were several important policy developments on the Nitrates Directive, and the Water Framework Directive so below is a short overview since last newsletter:
WFD CIS Working Group ECOSTAT
The European Commission, Member States and stakeholders continue developing tools for the joined-up implementation of the Nitrates Directive (NiD) and the Water Framework Directive (WFD). At the recent meeting of the WFD Working Group on ecological status, the members of the group discussed the preparation of the best practice guide to calculate actual nutrient loads as well as to set nutrient load reduction targets. The guide will be developed in 2026 including a dedicated workshop. The working group also discussed how to best account changes caused in freshwater ecosystems by climate change. The EEB will continue to contribute to this work next year, including sharing the NENUPHAR project findings.
Nitrates Directive
The Nitrates Committee has also recently (9 December) greenlighted an extension of Ireland’s nitrate derogation. Just two weeks after the European Court of Justice ruling that Ireland is failing water legislation, the Member State representatives in the Nitrates Committee gave their thumbs up to extend Ireland’s derogation from the Nitrates Directive by another three years. This is the sixth such exemption that Ireland is seeking from the Commission. From 2026, Ireland will be the only EU country still benefiting from a derogation.
This derogation means allowing the application of manure above what would normally be allowed. This encourages a higher concentration of livestock across a smaller number of hectares – despite the huge and growing environmental and human health risks. The derogations are only granted on the condition that it does not lead to water pollution. After Ireland has benefited from five nitrates derogations, generally given for four-year periods, water pollution has only got worse. (See EEB and Irish members’ press reaction).
The European Commission continues the fitness check evaluation of the Nitrates Directive, with the decision on the future of the Directive now expected in early 2026. In the recent EC Communication on simplifying the EU’s environmental acquis, the Commission confirmed that it will complete ongoing evaluations of the Nitrates Directive and take follow up measures, looking into how the objectives of this Directive could be achieved in the most effective and proportionate way. The Commission will also evaluate, how it could enable innovative and alternative uses of manure to stimulate new business and sustainable investment opportunities and contribute to environmental and climate objectives (biogas/biomethane, Renure, digestates and their different uses).
Water Framework Directive
In the same Communication, the European Commission also confirmed that by Q2 2026 the Commission will review and revise the Water Framework Directive building on stakeholders’ input and experiences in Member States, paying particular attention to simplification and the need to address potential bottlenecks, in order to promote circularity and access to critical raw materials in the EU, while protecting the environment and human health. EEB believes there is no need for such a review since the WFD has been thoroughly evaluated and the issues around insufficient WFD implementation are due to policy incoherence, lack of political will to properly implement it as well as lack of funding and not the issues of the legal text. Moreover, the WFD has just been updated and simplifies including addition of new priority water pollutants as well as 2 new derogations from its objectives. (See EEB reaction)
