L 319/24 Official Journal of the European Communities 23.11.2002 (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) COMMISSION COMMISSION DECISION of 18 November 2002 concerning a request for derogation under paragraph 2(b) of Annex III to and Article 9 of Council Directive 91/676/EEC concerning protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources (notified under document number C(2002) 464) (Only the Danish text is authentic) (2002/915/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Directive 91/676/EEC of 12 December 1991 concerning the protection of waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural sources (*), and in particular paragraph 2(b) of Annex III thereto, Whereas: 1 Paragraph 2(b) of Annex IIl to Directive 91/676/EEC provides that if a Member State allows a different amount of manure to be applied per hectare each year than the one specified in paragraph 2 of Annex III and subparagraph (a) of Annex III, it shall inform the Commission which will examine the justification in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 9 of Directive 91/676/EEC. These amounts must be fixed so as not to prejudice the achievement of the objectives specified in Article 1 of Directive 91/676/EEC and must be justified on the basis of objective criteria, for example: — long growing seasons, — crops with high nitrogen uptake, — high net precipitation in the vulnerable zone, — soils with exceptionally high denitrification capacity. This Decision in particular applies to the first and second of the above criteria. () OJL 375, 31.12.1991, p. 1. ) (4) Denmark informed the Commission on 2 July 1998 of its intention to apply a derogation under paragraph 2(b) of Annex III to Directive 91/676/EEC with regard to the action programme established under Article 5 of the Directive, and completed this request by technical docu- ments on 2 December 1999, 30 June 2000, 20 November 2000 and 8 October 2001. Denmark intends to allow the application of livestock manure, comparable to 230 kg nitrogen per hectare per year on specific cattle holdings with an average of 90 % of agricultural land available for manure application, cropped by grass, grass catch crops or beets and other crops being undersown by grass with low nitrate leaching potential. No leguminous or other plants fixing atmospheric nitrogen will be cropped in these farms and clover in grassland will be limited by adapted practices. This derogation applies to approximately 10 % of the total number of livestock units in Denmark based on nitrogen equivalent in animal manure, and 5 % of the agricultural surface. Cattle holdings with more than 250 livestock units must obtain an approval following the Danish implementation of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Direc- tive from the Municipality ensuring that manure use is in compliance with local needs for water protection. The cattle holdings, that in the next eight years must obtain an approval, correspond to 6 to 8% of the national cattle herd.