(1)

If the amount of manure that a Member State intends to apply per hectare each year is different from those specified in the first sentence of the second subparagraph of paragraph 2 of Annex III to Directive 91/676/EEC and in point (a) of that subparagraph, that amount is to be fixed so as not to prejudice the achievement of the objectives specified in Article 1 of that Directive and it has to be justified on the basis of objective criteria, such as long growing seasons and crops with high nitrogen uptake.

(2)

On 3 November 2011, the Commission adopted Implementing Decision 2011/721/EU (2), allowing Italy to authorise in the regions of Emilia Romagna, Lombardia, Piemonte and Veneto, under certain conditions, the application of up to 250 kg nitrogen per hectare per year from cattle manure and treated pig manure on farms with at least 70 % of crops with high nitrogen demand and long growing season.

(3)

The derogation granted by Implementing Decision 2011/721/EU concerned approximately 300 farms and 13 000 ha of land and expired on 31 December 2015.

(4)

On 20 January 2016, Italy submitted to the Commission a request for a derogation under the third subparagraph of paragraph 2 of Annex III to Directive 91/676/EEC with regard to the Regions of Lombardia and Piemonte.

(5)

The requested derogation concerns the intention of Italy to allow the application in the Regions of Lombardia and Piemonte of up to 250 kg nitrogen per hectare per year from cattle manure and treated pig manure on farms with at least 70 % of crops with high nitrogen demand and long growing season. Approximately 600 cattle farms and 60 pig farms in the Regions of Lombardia and Piemonte corresponding to respectively 15 % and 6 % of total cattle and total pig farms in the same regions, 4 % of the Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA) and 14 % of the total dairy livestock and 7,4 % of total pig numbers in the same regions are estimated to be potentially encompassed by the derogation. Arable farms can also apply for the derogation.

(6)

The legislation implementing Directive 91/676/EEC and establishing the action programmes in Lombardia (Decision n. X/5171 of 16 May 2016) and Piemonte (Decision n. 19/2971 of 29 February 2016) has been adopted and applies in conjunction with this Decision for the period 2016 to 2019.

(7)

The designated vulnerable zones to which the action programmes apply cover about 80 % of the UAA of Lombardia and 44 % of the UAA of Piemonte.

(8)

Water quality data submitted show that for groundwater in the Regions of Lombardia and Piemonte 87 % of groundwater bodies have mean nitrate concentrations below 50 mg/l nitrate and 55 % have mean nitrate concentrations below 25 mg/l nitrate. For surface waters, more than 90 % of monitoring sites have mean nitrate concentrations below 25 mg/l and no points have nitrate concentrations over 50 mg/l nitrate.

(9)

The Regions Lombardia and Piemonte account for more than 35 % of livestock in Italy: in particular, 38 % of dairy cattle, 60 % of pigs and 15 % of poultry. Livestock numbers show a decreasing trend in the period 2007-2013.

(10)

In the period 2003-2013, chemical nitrogen consumption declined about 27 %, as well as utilisation of mineral phosphorus fertilisers; the latter has been reduced by 57 %.

(11)

Grassland, maize grain, maize silage and winter cereals occupy about 65 % of the total agricultural area in Lombardia and Piemonte.

(12)

The supporting documents presented in the request for the derogation show that the proposed amount of 250 kg nitrogen per hectare per year from cattle manure and treated pig manure is justified on the basis of objective criteria such as high net precipitation, long growing seasons and high yields of crops with high nitrogen uptake.

(13)

After examining the request, the Commission considers that the proposed amount of 250 kg per hectare from cattle manure and treated pig manure will not prejudice the achievement of the objectives of Directive 91/676/EEC, subject to certain strict conditions being met.

(14)

Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and the Council (3) provides for a comprehensive, cross-border approach to water protection organised around river basin districts, with the objective of achieving a good status for European bodies of water by 2015. Reducing nutrients is an integral part of that objective. Granting of a derogation under this Decision is without prejudice to the provisions pursuant to Directive 2000/60/EC and does not exclude that additional measures may be needed to fulfil obligations derived from it.

(15)

Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) lays down general rules aimed at the establishment of the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the Union for the purposes of environmental policies of the Union and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment. Where applicable, the spatial information collected in the context of this Decision should be in line with the provisions set out in that Directive. In order to reduce administrative burden and enhance data coherence, Italy, when collecting the necessary data under this Decision should, where appropriate, make use of the information generated under the Integrated Administration and Control System established pursuant to Chapter II of Title V of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5).

(16)

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Nitrates Committee set up pursuant to Article 9 of Directive 91/676/EEC,

(a)

‘farms’ means agricultural holdings with or without livestock rearing;

(b)

‘parcel’ means an individual field or a group of fields, homogeneous regarding cropping, soil type and fertilisation practices;

(c)

‘grassland’ means permanent or temporary grassland (temporary lies less than five years);

(d)

‘late maturing maize’ means maize class FAO 600-700, planted from mid-March to the beginning of April, with a growing cycle of at least 145-150 days;

(e)

‘maize or sorghum followed by winter herbage’ means medium-late or early maturing maize, according to FAO international classification, or sorghum followed by winter herbage, such as Italian ryegrass, barley, triticale or winter rye;

(f)

‘winter cereal followed by summer herbage’ means winter wheat, winter barley or triticale, followed by summer herbage, such as maize, sorghum, Setaria or Panicum sp.;

(g)

‘crops with high nitrogen demand and long growing season’ means grassland, late maturing maize, maize or sorghum followed by winter herbage and winter cereal followed by summer herbage;

(h)

‘cattle manure’ means livestock manure excreted by cattle, including during grazing or in processed form;

(i)

‘manure treatment’ means the processing of pig manure into two fractions, a solid fraction and a liquid fraction, performed in order to improve land application and enhance nitrogen and phosphorus recovery;

(j)

‘treated manure’ means the liquid fraction resulting from pig manure treatment, with a minimum nitrogen to phosphate ratio (N/P2O5) of 2,5;

(k)

‘treated manure with nitrogen removal’ means treated manure with a nitrogen content of less than 30 % compared to nitrogen content of the raw pig manure;

(l)

‘soils with low organic matter content’ means soils with organic carbon content lower than 2 % in the top 30 centimetres of soil;

(m)

‘non-saline and low salinity soils’ means those soils with electrical conductivity on saturated soil paste extract ECe < 4 mS/cm or electrical conductivity on aqueous extract with 1:2 soil/water ratio EC 1:2 < 1 mS/cm, or areas defined as certainly not affected by risk of salinization, as indicated on the soil map defined at regional level;

(n)

‘nitrogen use efficiency’ means the percentage of total nitrogen applied in livestock manure form which is available to crops in the year of application.

(a)

70 % or more of the acreage of the farm shall be cultivated with crops with high nitrogen demand and long growing season;

(b)

temporary grassland shall be ploughed in spring;

(c)

temporary and permanent grassland shall not include more than 50 % of leguminous or other plants fixing atmospheric nitrogen;

(d)

late maturing maize shall be harvested, including the stalks;

(e)

winter herbage, such as Italian ryegrass, barley, triticale or winter rye, shall be seeded within two weeks after harvest of maize or sorghum and shall be harvested no earlier than two weeks before maize or sorghum sowing;

(f)

summer herbage, such as maize, sorghum, Setaria or Panicum sp., shall be seeded within two weeks after harvest of winter cereals and shall be harvested no earlier than two weeks before winter cereals sowing;

(g)

a crop with high nitrogen demand shall be seeded within two weeks after ploughing grass and fertilisers shall not be applied in the year of ploughing of permanent grassland.

(a)

evaluation of the implementation of the derogation, on the basis of controls at farm level, as well as controls on manure transport, and information on non-compliant farms, on the basis of the results of the administrative and field inspections;

(b)

information on manure treatment, including further processing and utilisation of the solid fractions, and provide detailed data on characteristics of treatment systems, their efficiency and composition of treated manure, as well as final destination of solid fractions;

(c)

maps showing areas with low organic matter content, as well as the measures taken in order to encourage the use of the stabilized solid fraction on soils with low organic matter content, as referred to in Article 5(2);

(d)

the methodologies to assess the composition of treated manure, the variations in composition and treatment efficiency for each farm benefiting from individual derogation, referred to in Article 5(3);

(e)

the inventory of ammonia and other emissions from manure treatment, referred to in Article 5(4);

(f)

the established protocol to measure electrical conductivity and maps showing areas affected by salinization, referred to in Article 6(12);

(g)

the methodologies to verify the compatibility of granted derogations with the capacity of manure treatment plants, referred to in Article 8(1);

(h)

the methodologies to verify the compatibility of each granted derogation with the authorized water use in the farm benefitting from the derogation, referred to in Article 8(2);

(i)

maps showing the percentage of farms, percentage of livestock, percentage of agricultural land covered by individual derogations and maps showing local land use, as well as data on crop rotations and agricultural practices in derogation farms, referred to in Article 10(1) and (2)

(j)

the results of water monitoring, including information on water quality trends for ground and surface waters, including coastal waters, as well as the impact on derogation on water quality as referred to in Article 10(3);

(k)

the list of most vulnerable water bodies, referred to in Article 10(4);

(l)

summary and evaluation of data obtained from the monitoring sites referred to in Article 10(5);