The European Commission has welcomed the support given by EU member states for its RENURE proposals.

Standing for “REcovered Nitrogen from manURE,” RENURE fertilisers are made from processed manure, such as treated digestate from an anaerobic digestion plant.

The processed material would then be classified as chemical fertiliser and would count towards farmers’ organic limits set under the Nitrates Directive.

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The Commission’s RENURE proposals have long been viewed as a way to encourage dairy farmers operating under derogation to send slurry to anaerobic digestion plants. At present, they are not allowed to take back the resulting digestate, but the RENURE proposals would change this.

Replace chemical fertiliser

In a statement, the Commission said that, by allowing the use of RENURE fertilisers above the limit for the application of manure and processed manure set by the Nitrates Directive, member states and farmers will have the possibility to replace chemical fertilisers with RENURE fertilisers.

“This will be done in a safe way to ensure the continued protection of waters and the environment. It will also reduce costs for farmers and increase the strategic autonomy of the EU agricultural sector,” the statement read.

Next steps

Following this week’s meeting of the nitrates committee, the Commission's RENURE proposal will be shared with the European Parliament and the Council for a three-month scrutiny period.

If there are no objections from the European Parliament and the Council, the Commission will be able to adopt this amendment to the Nitrates Directive.

The amendment would apply only in member states choosing to authorise RENURE. They will need to transpose the amendment into national law.

Speaking on the endorsement, Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy Jessika Roswall said: “The use of RENURE fertilisers can support efficient nutrient management and make our agriculture more resilient, while remaining safe for the environment. Our proposal gives flexibility for those member states that wish to use RENURE fertilisers, while ensuring that pollution hotspots can be tackled.”

Welcomed

Welcoming the proposals, Irish Bioenergy Association (IrBEA) CEO Seán Finan said: “It is an important milestone on the road to the displacement of chemical fertiliser on Irish farms with processed organic manure/digestate from biomethane production.”

The agreement, when transposed into law, will increase the allowable limits for organic fertiliser products derived from digestate from biomethane production to displace chemical fertiliser.”

Finan continued: “We strongly encourage the Irish Government and our Irish MEPs to work to ensure that this agreement successfully proceeds through the [European] Council of Ministers and European Parliament scrutiny process and, following this, that Ireland chooses to authorise RENURE and transpose the amendment into national law.”

Limited

The RENURE proposal allows only three types of products/processes, including ammonium salts (gas purification/ammonia removal from off-gases), mineral concentrate (reverse osmosis) and struvite (struvite precipitation).

However, IrBEA said that it strongly advocates that this list of products is only a starting point and must be expanded in the future.

“This expansion should extend to allow for digestate itself as a RENURE product in the future. Today’s agreement is an important step forward.

"This agreement clearly establishes the legal mechanism which allows for the displacement of chemical fertiliser with organic manure/digestate, which is particularly important for Ireland with grass-based production systems,” Finan concluded.