The new study ‘Monitoring of nitrogen in water in the EU: Legal framework, effects of nitrate, design principles, effectiveness and future developments‘ was commissioned by the European Parliament Committee on Petitions and prepared by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment experts.
Over the last decades, emissions of nutrients and pesticides have proved to be a major source of pollution for both drinking water resources and (aquatic) ecosystems in Europe. Agriculture is a major emission source of nutrients and pesticides, along with other sources like emissions of human and industrial waste water effluent.
This study focuses on nutrient emissions by agriculture, giving an overview of the legal and environmental context in which nitrate emissions to water are measured in the different Member States of the EU, and how the European Commission makes sure that monitoring systems and their results are comparable throughout the EU.
