Short overview of the EU Healthy Soil Strategy for 2030

Giving soil its rightful place!

One of the key roles of the European Commission is to help shape the EU's overall strategy. In this role, it has put forward 6 priorities for the present period. One very publicized and key priority is the European Green Deal.
In line with the Green Deal, the EU commission has adopted the 17^th November 2021, a new EU soil strategy for 2030 that is a communication to the different European institutions giving the lines that the commission will follow and the actions it will take.

A soil strategy addressing the key functions of soils

The objectives of the EU healthy soil strategy address the different roles of soils: Combatting desertification, restoring carbon-rich ecosystems, fixing Green House Gas through land management, protecting groundwater, reducing nutrient loss and the use of chemical pesticides and making significant progress in the remediation of contaminated sites.

A proposal for an EU Soil Health Law by 2023

A landmark action put forward in the soil strategy for 2030 is that the Commission will make a dedicated legislative proposal on soil health by 2023. This will not be the first attempt to have a legislative framework dedicated to soil at EU level, a proposal for a soil directive had been blocked in 2010 by a minority of members at the European Council. The present alarming state of soils in the EU is however considered by many to be the result of the absence of a dedicated EU legislation. This proposal was therefore added to the strategy after consultation and given recent input by the European Parliament, the European Court of Auditors, the Committee of the Regions and other stakeholders.

Action defined in the Soil strategy

The EU soil strategy sets out actions to be taken on 4 main topics:

• Soil as a key solution for our big challenges (climate mitigation, circular economy, biodiversity and healthy water resources)
• Preventing soil degradation and restoring healthy soils (though sustainable land management , preventing desertification and soil pollution and remediating contaminated sites)
• Need to know more about soils (soil and the digital agenda; and soil data and monitoring as well as research and innovation)
• Enabling the transition to healthy soils ( how do we finance this transition and ensure societal engagement)

Expected topics to be addressed in the proposal for a Soil Health Law

Some actions proposed in the soil strategy will be directly linked to the proposal of a Soil Health Law. The aspects that are announced as to be taken into consideration for drafting the legislation proposal are:

• Land take: Defining “land take” and consider provisions for member states to report on progress on achieving land take targets.
• Sustainable land management : the commission will assess requirements for the sustainable use of soil.
• Excavated soils: the commission will investigate streams of excavated soils, still considered to be one of the main streams of waste in Europe and see the need for a provision for a “passport for excavated soil” in the proposed Soil Health Law.
• remediation of contaminated sites: the Commission will propose with the Soil Health Law to propose legally bonding provisions to
  • i) identify contaminated sites
  • ii) inventory and register those sites
  • iii) remediate sites that pose a significant risk to human health and the environment by 2050

It will also assess the feasibility of the introduction of a soil health certificate for land transaction.

Other related actions directly related to soil contamination will cover the restriction of the use of microplastics and measures for the unintentional release of microplastics, as well as preparing a restriction under the REACH regulation on all non-essential uses of PFAS.

EU fact sheet on soil strategy

Voor meer informatie, neem contact op met Michael Dumas.

Email: michael.dumas@tauw.com
T: +32 473 76 60 11