The Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive, also known as the Soil Monitoring Law, has been adopted. On 29 September this year, the directive was supported by the governments of the Member States in the Council of the European Union, and on 23 October it was also supported by the European Parliament. The directive will enter into force 20 days after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, and Member States will have to implement it within three years.
The objectives of the directive are to:
- establish a stable and harmonised soil monitoring framework for all soils across the European Union;
- reduce soil pollution to levels no longer considered harmful to human health and the environment;
- continuously improve soil health in the European Union;
- maintain healthy soil conditions and prevent and address all aspects of soil degradation.
The objectives set out in the directive support efforts to achieve healthy soils by 2050, capable of providing a range of ecosystem services to an extent sufficient to meet environmental, societal and economic needs, prevent and mitigate the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss, increase resilience to natural disasters, and improve food security. However, it is important that the directive does not impose any binding obligations on landowners or farmers.
The directive requires Member States to establish a scientifically and geostatistically sound soil monitoring network, using the best available information on soil properties. At the monitoring points established, soil condition, health and fertility will be regularly monitored and assessed. Monitoring will take place in cycles, and all points will have to be surveyed within a six-year period. The data obtained will be reported to the European Union and, more importantly, made available to science, as well as to landowners and farmers. In addition, Member States will have to provide support to landowners regarding the improvement of soil health, for example through information, good practices, research support and information on available funding.
The directive also provides that Member States will have to identify contaminated and potentially contaminated sites that may directly or indirectly harm human health or the environment. The identified sites will have to be investigated and, based on risk criteria, the harm caused by contaminated sites will have to be reduced.
The full text of the adopted directive is available here: Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on soil monitoring and resilience.