The production of fertilizers must be protected from any rationing of gas supplies and each EU member state must equip itself with targeted subsidies to the sector using the temporary crisis framework for state aid. These are the recommendations that the European Commission made yesterday to member countries with the aim of guaranteeing the access and availability of fertilizers, essential for the security of the continent’s food supplies.
While remaining faithful to the purpose of reducing chemistry in the fields by 2030 and favoring the use of green products, at this juncture Europe does not remain insensitive to the crisis that is affecting the farmers of the continent, forced to deal with the rising prices and decreasing yields. The price of nitrogen fertilizers, the production of which depends strictly on natural gas, due to the war in Ukraine has in fact increased by an average of 149% compared to a year ago. Not only that: with Russia responsible for 40% of all European imports of nitrogen fertilizers, the quantities of fertilizers available to farmers have also decreased on the shelves.
For this reason, the European Commission has decided not only to allow Member States to give priority to the continuous and uninterrupted access to natural gas of fertilizer producers in their national emergency plans in the event of gas rationing, but has opened up to a real and own targeted financial support. In particular, the revised Temporary Crisis Framework for State Aid must allow Member States to provide specific support to farmers and fertilizer producers. Funds generated by measures such as the market revenue cap of some electricity producers and the solidarity contribution can also be used, under the applicable conditions, for the purposes of national support schemes. Finally, the Commission will examine, together with the Member States, the appropriateness of also using the agricultural reserve worth € 450 million for the financial year 2023 for farmers affected by high production costs.