The 16th of December saw the conclusion of a four-year process at the European level to deliver a Soil Monitoring Law for the EU. First foreseen within the EU Soil Strategy for 2030, this directive has entered into force following extensive calls for evidence, public consultations and interinstitutional negotiations. Now in place, the Law is set to address a critical issue making its presence known across all member states of the Union - soil degradation. According to the European Commission’s estimation, the annual cost of this environmental crisis amounts to over €50 billion, with more than 60% of all European soils classified to be in an “unhealthy state”.
All major constitutive elements contributing to these statistics have been accounted for in the new legislation, including the wide variety of processes and soil types across the Old Continent. In that sense, forest, agricultural and urban terrains (among many others) will be monitored in the context of factors related to processes such as erosion, compaction, loss of organic carbon, contamination, soil sealing and biodiversity .To phrase it differently, each EU country is now required to carry out rigorous and comprehensive assessment of soil health, with the parameters of the task remaining flexible to account for differing territorial conditions. The directive is thus meant to improve knowledge about local, regional and European soil management practices without impinging on national competences via explicit targets and prohibitions.
Ultimately, the Soil Monitoring Law and the obligations introduced therein are meant to support not only state-level authorities, but also farmers and soil managers working to improve health and resilience on the ground. Knowledge uptake and cross-sectoral collaboration are therefore at the core of the newly introduced legislation.
The full directive can be found here.