Overview

• The Federal Administrative Court sided with Deutsche Umwelthilfe and instructed the agriculture ministry to draft a National Action Programme to keep groundwater below the EU limit of 50 mg/L nitrate.
• Judges found the current fertilizer ordinance insufficient and mandated a two-step sequence in which the action programme precedes and informs revisions to the Düngeverordnung.
• Official data show the EU threshold was exceeded at roughly 25–26% of monitoring sites in 2020–2022, indicating widespread noncompliance.
• Water utilities welcomed the ruling and urged enforceable measures such as comprehensive nutrient-flow accounting, while the Farmers' Association described the programme as a formal precursor to fertilizer rules.
• Political tension deepens as a stricter package pushed by former minister Cem Özdemir failed in the Bundesrat and current minister Alois Rainer seeks to relax documentation duties like the Stoffstrombilanz.