Two Worlds within EU27: Sharp Contrasts in Organic and Mineral Nitrogen–Phosphorus Use, Nitrogen–Phosphorus Balances, and Soil Phosphorus Status: Widening and Deepening Gap between Western and Central Europe

Abstract

In the first section of the article, factors affecting the magnitude of mineral and organic nitrogen–phosphorus (NP) use, such as per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and population density, are discussed. Nutrient balances, especially those of N and P, are important environmental indicators. In recognition of their importance, the countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) group have an obligation to submit yearly calculations on soil surface N and P balances. The NP balance studies should always be combined with investigations on the distribution of soil NP status of the investigated area. The negative NP balances and worsening NP status in central‐ and eastern European (CEE) countries, including those that have recently joined the European Union (NEU12), are in sharp contrast to past practices in the EU15 countries, where strong positive NP balances and oversupply of NP may lead to environmental and ecological threats. There is evidence that the level of oversupply in many of these countries is on the decline. In the CEE countries, on the other hand, worsening levels of NP undersupply may result in increasingly low yields and in economic and agronomic problems. Cooperation within the European Union should help to solve both the environmental threat facing the western part of the community and the agronomic and economic problems in the central and eastern parts. Fertilizer recommendation systems should function on the principle of providing sustainable and economically sound NP nutrition for crops without threatening the environment with the NP oversupply. In a perfectly correct and justifiable manner, the European Union made investments in environment protection, a strict condition for the accession of the central European countries to the EU. One essential obligation was the satisfactory disposal of sewage, as a water‐protection measure. The EU should be as consistently strict in curbing the massive diffuse NP pollution caused by agriculture. Improvement of the EU Nitrate Directive and elaboration of the new EU Phosphate Directive should be based on environmental risk assessment. The principles of environmentally friendly crop nutrition should appear in the improved EU Nitrate Directive and in the new Phosphate Directive. The EU countries with higher per capita income and population density should be given special attention because of their environmentally friendly crop nutrition practice.