Survey seeks input for EU paper on sustainable phosphorus use

There is a growing awareness that phosphorus is not only essential for agriculture, but that it is also a limited resource, and that we need new governance measures to ensure it is used sustainably. Large, commercially viable phosphorus rock reserves are found in only a few countries, mainly outside the EU, so EU member states depend on imports in an increasingly volatile market.

At the same time, from an environmental standpoint, phosphorus from agricultural runoff and point sources leaches into water bodies and contributes to eutrophication. But there are no regulatory targets for phosphorus management within the EU, and in the Baltic Sea Region, only the Baltic Sea Action Plan stipulates phosphorus targets, which are strictly voluntary.

EU policy response

Now the European Commission is looking at ways to address this issue. With the September 2011 Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe, the Commission received approval to explore future governance options to promote effective recycling.

The Commission is also preparing a European Green Paper on Phosphorus, to be published in early summer. And the Danish Government, which currently holds the rotating Presidency of the European Council, has included phosphorus management and reuse on the agenda of a conference to be held in May.

To inform the discussion at the conference, the Danish Government has requested a position paper on phosphorus from the EU-funded Baltic COMPASS project, in which SEI is an active partner. This paper may also inspire inputs to the EU Green Paper.

“This is an opportunity to help shape EU policy on sustainable phosphorus management,” says Rasmus Klocker Larsen, an SEI research associate with an expertise in phosphorus issues who works with Baltic COMPASS. Once the EU Green Paper is published, he notes, an online stakeholder consultation will be conducted, followed by decisions in the European Council and European Parliament.

“If the EU negotiations go well, there are many opportunities to strike novel ‘win-win’ solutions for a range of sectors and societal interests,” he says.

Seeking stakeholders’ views

To help prepare the Baltic COMPASS position paper, Larsen and colleagues are seeking input from parliamentarians, government officials, agricultural and environmental groups, individual farmers, and other interested parties. They have prepared a two-page discussion brief that lays out the key issues, and they are conducting an online survey, available at http://bit.ly/Baltic-Survey.

Comments are also accepted by email and by postal mail, and survey participants are encouraged to share the questions with others who may want to comment.

The EU-funded project Baltic COMPASS aims to find ways how the agricultural sector in the Baltic Sea Region can produce the daily food required by the region’s 90 million inhabitants and at the same time preserve the Baltic Sea. To learn more, visit www.balticcompass.org.