The objective is to have developed and applied a methodology allowing to assess and quantify the effects and costs of various policies and measures aiming at reducing the impact of agriculture on water air pollution and climate change. Both ancillary benefits and trade offs of measures have to be identified. In this report, the integrated approach of task 1 is described: development of an integrated approach. The model MITERRA-EUROPE is developed in this project. It is a model that can be used to assess the effects of the implementation of ammonia (NH3) and nitrate (NO3) measures and policies on the emissions of NH3, (nitrous oxide) N2O, N oxides (NOx), and methane (CH4) to the atmosphere, leaching of N (including nitrate) to ground water and surface waters, and on the phosphorus (P) balance on both EU-27 level, country level, and regional (NUTS 2) level. It is a tool that can be helpful for tuning different N policies.

This Report describes the results of Task 2 ‘Analysis of International and European policy instruments’. The aim of this task is to analyze the existing International and European policy instruments aiming at reducing emissions of ammonia, nitrous oxide and methane to the atmosphere and nitrate to groundwater and surface waters. Specifically, the study addresses the possible synergies and/or possible antagonisms in these policies, and provides suggestions and recommendations to ensure an optimal coherence.

"Farm data needed for agri-environmental reporting" is a working paper presented at the final seminar of the DireDate project. The DireDate project focused on analysing the direct and indirect data needs linked to the farms, with the objective of setting up an efficient and sustainable data collection for agri-environmental indicators and policy reporting in the EU. The project was conducted by a research consortium led by DLO-Alterra, Wageningen UR, The Netherlands and involving the Department of Agro-ecology and Environment, University of Aarhus, Denmark; the Institute of Technology and Life Sciences, ITP/IMUZ, Falenty, Poland; the Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria; and ADAS, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom.

In response to the environmental side effects of the increasing N losses from agriculture, especially during the period 1960-1990, series of environmental policies and measures has been implemented in the European Union (EU) from the early 1990s onwards. These policies and measures specifically aim at decreasing the emissions of NH3 to the atmosphere, the leaching of NO3 - to groundwater and surface waters, and the emissions of greenhouse gases, notably N2O, CH4 and CO2 to the atmosphere. This report gives an impact assessment of a possible modification of the IPCC Directive.