{"id":117548,"date":"2025-04-10T07:50:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T05:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/?p=117548"},"modified":"2025-04-10T07:50:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T05:50:44","slug":"a-weak-deal-for-europes-soils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/a-weak-deal-for-europes-soils\/","title":{"rendered":"A weak deal for Europe\u2019s soils"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>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\u2019s urgently needed, environmental NGOs warn.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The deal reached by the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission is an important milestone towards finally having an EU legal framework on soils. But policymakers have <\/span><b>failed to seize the opportunity to properly address soil degradation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, instead watering down a text that already lacked substance. Originally envisioned as a framework to bring EU soils back to health, NGOs are alarmed to see that it has been further stripped of core measures and obligations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the fact that a deal was reached is welcome, NGOs are concerned by: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>weak overall ambition<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the lack of<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">legally binding targets and soil health plans.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The scrapping of key measures on <\/span><b>sustainable soil management.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> By not requiring Member States to identify and implement sustainable soil management practices, and by removing common principles of soil management, the law fails to set a pathway toward a real improvement of soil health. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The downgrading of efforts to reduce <\/span><b>land take<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (the harmful conversion of agricultural or natural areas into artificial surfaces) to voluntary measures. In addition the scope has been reduced to soil sealing and destruction only, which hinders progress towards reaching the Soil Strategy\u2019s objective of no net land take by 2050. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The introduction of excessive flexibilities in the <\/span><b>soil health monitoring and assessment framework<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (the core of this law), risking a harmonised assessment of overall soil health in Europe. For example, the framework\u2019s monitoring requirements for soil biodiversity and soil pollution are inadequate. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p><b><i>Caroline Heinzel, Policy Officer for Soil at the European Environmental Bureau, said:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s encouraging that, despite disinformation campaigns, decision makers reached a historic agreement, the result however is highly disappointing. Europe\u2019s first-ever soil law will merely act to monitor continued soil degradation rather than reverse it, a concerning conclusion for farmer livelihoods, nature, and climate.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Kristine De Schamphelaere, Policy Officer for Agriculture at PAN Europe, said:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pesticides are detrimental to soil biodiversity. Our soils are run into the ground and deprived of life, while healthy soils are the foundation of healthy ecosystems and food production. Farmers need a long-term perspective with living soils as the basis. Pesticides and other soil pollutants should not only be thoroughly\u00a0 monitored, but urgently and ambitiously reduced. Given the grave state of our soils, the absence of ambition in the deal is appalling.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Martina Forbicini, Programme Officer at ECOS &#8211; Environmental Coalition on Standards, said:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSoil is the foundation of all life on earth, so it&#8217;s encouraging to finally see EU rules on this critical \u2014 yet critically neglected \u2014 natural resource. However, we&#8217;re disappointed that actionable tools and obligations to improve soil health are missing. There\u2019s still a slim chance this law could make a difference, but unfortunately when monitoring is prioritised above action nothing is guaranteed. Implementation and enforcement will be crucial \u2014 and both must happen quickly and thoroughly to protect soils for future generations.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The agreement reached must now be rubber stamped by the Member States, as well as the EU Parliament\u2019s Environment committee and plenary later this year. NGOs call on Member States and the EU Parliament to approve the agreement without delay, so that the EU can be one step closer to tackling the triple climate, pollution and nature crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>ENDS<\/p>\n<h4><b>Notes for editors:\u00a0<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The call for an ambitious EU Soil Law received support by a wide range of stakeholders <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">see <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/eeb.org\/library\/open-letter-soil-health-law\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">open letter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> signed by 250+ farmers, scientists, civil society organisations, foundations and private sector actors<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">see <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/op2b-one-planet-business-for-biodiversity_urgent-call-for-support-ambitious-soil-activity-7207329711629168641-uvBh\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">business statement<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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,<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":117549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/karsten-bauche-EO7egG8Abn4-unsplash.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}