Press release | At 4:30 on Thursday morning, EU institutions reached a provisional agreement on the long-awaited, and first-ever, EU legislative framework for soils: the Soil Monitoring Law. However, the deal falls short of what is urgently needed, environmental NGOs warn.
Amidst negotiations on the EU Soil Monitoring Law, we've joined other environmental organisations to highlight the urgent issue of soil degradation in Europe. In a summary of our key recommendations, we collectively urge the EU institutions to strive towards the most ambitious law possible and set the course towards achieving healthy soils across Europe by 2050.
Currently, over 60% of soils are undergoing degradation processes. One of the major causes of this is the lack of a dedicated EU legislative framework. Read our 10 key policy recommendations for the upcoming trilogue negotiations on the Soil Monitoring Law.
In this joint briefing we highlight the critical role that healthy soils play in supporting ecosystems, society and the economy, their degraded state, and the urgent need for robust EU soil governance, specifically an ambitious Soil Monitoring Law and a roadmap for the implementation of the EU Soil Strategy for 2030. Along with other diverse environmental organisations, we are advocating for ambitious EU soil governance.
The European Parliament has voted to water down the proposed Soil Monitoring Law [1], undermining efforts to unlock the environmental and health benefits of soils for EU citizens. With the first dedicated EU law to address soil health, MEPs could have cleared the path for an ambitious text, but they planted weeds instead.
Every day we take soil for granted – but there is a whole world beneath our feet, hidden from our view, that is not only teeming with life but provides invaluable support to human existence. On World Soil Day we focus on the need for robust policy, backed by global standards, to both protect and restore healthy soil to elevate its life-sustaining power.
ECOS welcomes the proposal for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience - a crucial step to protect soil and the life-sustaining ecosystem services it provides. A law protecting and restoring soils is needed to achieve the European Green Deal objectives. The current proposal leaves room for improvement and we call on policymakers to implement tangible changes that will increase the ambition and robustness of this long-awaited legislation.
Soil, and the multitude of organisms that live in it, make life on land possible. It provides us with food, with biomass and fibres, and with raw materials. It regulates the water and the carbon and nutrient cycles. Healthy soils are also the largest terrestrial carbon pool on the planet. Coupled with their sponge-like ability to absorb water and reduce the risk of flooding and drought, this makes soil an indispensable ally in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
ECOS, together with other 37 organisations, calls on the European Parliament and the Council to ensure the EU achieve the objective of healthy soils by 2050.
ECOS is looking for experts in the field of environmental assessments of soil functions and ecosystem services to represent and defend environmental interests in the development of standards and related policies. Our experts provide us with technical and scientific input and represent ECOS in standardisation processes and multi-stakeholder discussions.
ECOS is co-funded by the European Commission and EFTA
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EISMEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
