The Danish fjords and inland waters struggle year after year with oxygen depletion and fish deaths. This is mainly due to an excessively high emission of nitrogen, which mainly stems from the agricultural use of manure and fertiliser.

Despite many years of numerous political promises to reduce nitrogen pollution, emissions have been constant from 2012 to 2021, which are the latest updated figures. And there is unfortunately nothing to indicate that the government's new water plans for the years 2021 to 2027 will ensure that Denmark will reduce emissions sufficiently to meet the EU's Water Framework Directive, where the member states have committed themselves to ensuring good ecological state of the water environment by 2027 at the latest.

That is why Denmark's Nature Conservation Association, Greenpeace, the Green Transition Denmark and Denmark's Sports Fishing Association have now approached the EU, in the hope that the European Commission will ensure that Denmark lives up to the rules for a good marine environment.

"Year after year, we have raised the issue of nitrogen pollution from agriculture, which destroys life in our marine environment. A new study shows that the fish are simply disappearing because of the poor ecosystems, and things are going from bad to worse. The water plans that the Danish government has just put forward are completely inadequate in relation to ensuring a clean marine environment, and therefore we are now going to the EU, in the hope that the politicians can be pressured to act." says Maria Reumert Gjerding, President of the Danish Nature Conservation Association.

"Thanks to a toxic cocktail of years of political failure and the Department of Agriculture and Food's stranglehold on the green transition, our once vibrant Danish coastal waters have collapsed and turned into a barren underwater desert. Now our hope is that the EU will hold Denmark to our own promises and international obligations, so that we can breathe oxygen and life into the nature that we pass on to our children and young people." says Sune Scheller, campaign manager at Greenpeace.

"Year after year, algae and oxygen depletion spread in our coastal waters. The ocean and everything that lives in it is millimeters from a fatal knock out. Nevertheless, Denmark has sent a plan to the EU, where they have postponed the decision on how to achieve the goal of good ecological condition in our water environment. It is simply unsustainable and naive to think that the problems can be solved at the last minute,” says Torben Kaas, chairman of the Danish Sports Fishing Association.

"Politicians again and again base a large part of the nitrogen effort on voluntary measures from agriculture. An approach that time and again has proven not to deliver. The marine environment cannot wait any longer, and we hope that the EU will make it clear that our politicians must step on the nitrogen brake now. The sooner this happens, the sooner we will get life back in the sea", says Bjarke Møller, director of the Green Transition Denmark.

The main points of the complaint:

1. Denmark's Nature Conservation Association, Greenpeace, the Green Transition Denmark and Denmark's Sportfishing Association have approached the EU because Denmark's nitrogen emissions have not decreased in the last ten years and are not expected to decrease sufficiently until 2027, which is the deadline for the EU's water framework directive.
2. It is assessed by the associations that the lack of decrease in the Danish discharge of nitrogen contradicts the purpose of the Nitrate Directive (91/676/EEC), which aims to reduce water pollution caused or caused by nitrate (that is, nitrogen-containing fertiliser).
3. The flawed Danish nitrogen plans are also assessed to contravene the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), which aims to ensure a good water environment by 2027 at the latest, as well as the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), if nitrogen pollution leads to deterioration of the state of nature in designated Natura 2000 areas.
4. Likewise, it is assessed that the Danish nitrogen effort is in breach of the marine framework strategy directive (2008/56/EC), according to which the necessary measures must be taken to achieve or maintain a good environmental condition in the marine environment by the year 2020 at the latest.
5. The associations assess that the government, with the water plans for 2021-2027, does not ensure that Denmark reduces nitrogen emissions from the current annual 56.300 tons/year to 38.3000 tons/year, which the Danish Environmental Agency has assessed is necessary to meet the EU's water framework directive on good ecological state in 2027. This is due, among other things, to the fact that the government is betting that the nitrogen reductions must come from voluntary agreements with agriculture, which historically have not worked. 
6. In addition, the associations believe that the government overestimates how much nitrogen pollution will decrease without further measures – also known as the baseline effect. And finally, the watershed plans are incomplete because part of the decision is postponed until a revisit in 2024.

Read the inquiry here.

Fact: The European Commission has previously opened proceedings against Denmark for failure to act to reduce nitrogen pollution 

•  3 February 2016: DN turns to the EU regarding problems with the agricultural package. https://www.altinget.dk/miljoe/artikel/naturfredningsforening-klager-til-eu-over-landbrugspakke
• 10 May 2016: It emerges that the EU has opened a pilot case against Denmark. The European Commission has been concerned, among other things, that the agricultural package, which was adopted in 2015, would mean a deterioration of the aquatic environment, which is against the rules. https://www.information.dk/indland/2016/05/eu-advarsel-kan-genaabne-landbrugspakken
• November 24, 2016: The government states that it is adjusting the agricultural package and the area with nitrogen-reducing catch crops will be increased, just as the extent of voluntary farming was limited. In the same way, the phosphorus requirement is also being tightened. https://fvm.dk/nyheder/nyhed/nyhed/regeringen-og-eu-finder-faelles-forstaaelse-for-hjoernesten-i-foedevare-og-landbrugspakken
• April 3. 2017: Denmark gets the cattle exemption extended, but the dispute over the agricultural package has not been resolved, says the EU Commission. https://www.altinget.dk/artikel/eu-kommissionen-stadig-vroevl-med-landbrugspakke
• 26 November 2019, the government tightens the nitrogen requirements for agriculture. This is happening because the voluntary measures that were foreseen in the agricultural package have not been delivered. https://www.altinget.dk/miljoe/artikel/ny-kvaelstof-aftale-laegger-kimen-til-opgoeret-med-landbrugspakken
• 5th of June. 2020: The government once again tightens the requirements following pressure from the EU, with lower nitrogen standards for humus soils: https://www.altinget.dk/miljoe/artikel/regeringen-strammer-igen-grebet-om-landbruget
• 9 November 2021: The Commission states that the case is formally closed: https://www.altinget.dk/miljoe/artikel/efter-fem-aar-eu-kommissionen-lukker-sag-om-omstridt-landbrugspakke