Mayors demand delay to fertiliser law over rural impact

Denmark’s first environmental and nature agreement has drawn fierce criticism from mayors, who warn that its implementation could undermine local work on the country’s green tripartite agreement, DR reports.

The agreement, reached in June, introduces a new model intended to reduce farmers’ use of fertiliser and protect life in the fjords. Its implementation includes DKK 1.23 billion in compensation for 2027 to help offset farmers’ losses during the first years of the changes.

Several farming organisations say the measures will hit the sector so hard that they have stopped work in their local tripartite groups. Seven mayors in central and western Jutland have now jointly appealed to the Danish Parliament, warning that the government risks undermining its own agreement.

Marianne Bredal, the Venstre mayor of Struer Municipality, said the fertiliser law should be delayed by a year. She fears the agreement could collapse if the law is passed in its current form and said the changes would have a particularly serious impact in a region where farming occupies a large part of the landscape.

“We have a Parliament and a government talking about a Denmark in balance. At the same time, they are carrying out a massacre of rural districts. I find that completely incomprehensible,” Bredal said.

She said introducing additional regulation while the local tripartite work was already under way would disrupt the entire collaboration.

Her party colleague Niels Jørgen Pedersen, mayor of Thisted Municipality, also criticised the agreement.

“This is where we produce Denmark’s food, and I think it is completely senseless to wipe out large areas of Denmark on such an uncertain basis,” he said.

Anders Bøge of the Socialist People’s Party, a member of Skive Municipal Council and deputy chair of the Limfjord Local Tripartite, supports delaying the law. He said farmers’ voluntary participation was essential to implementing the agreement and maintaining progress in local projects.

“If we lose the voluntary participation, we lose the projects, and then we will not get a clean fjord anyway,” Bøge said.

Minister says action cannot be delayed

Minister for Nature and Animal Welfare Christian Rabjerg Madsen is due to meet the chairs of all 23 local tripartite groups and about 100 municipal representatives on Friday.

He told DR News that he understood farmers’ frustration but said the law was necessary now rather than in a year or later.

“We have a water environment account that has been overdrawn year after year. We are setting new records for oxygen depletion year after year, so we cannot continue postponing decisions,” Madsen said.

Venstre politicians in Parliament have also expressed concern that the regulation could hit too hard and unevenly. Pedersen hopes his party colleagues will vote against the law, which is scheduled for its second reading in Parliament on 1 September.

He said farmers could not reasonably respond to rules introduced after they had planned and sown their fields, describing the proposed timetable as deeply unfair.