We, the signatories of this statement, welcome the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience (Soil Monitoring Law). Unfortunately, the proposal in its current form will not enable the achievement of healthy soils in the EU. The change of the name of the legislation, which was originally planned to be called ‘Soil Health Law’, is symbolic of its lack of ambition and its shift away from soil health towards largely soil monitoring. With this statement, we would like to express our support for this initiative but also stress how the EC proposal can be improved in order to help the EU achieve the objective of healthy soils by 2050.
The lack of dedicated EU soil legislation has led to very partial protection of soils and highly fragmented governance. A strong Soil Law has the potential to change this. Healthy soil ecosystems connect many of our most important challenges, including tackling the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises, ensuring food security and sustainable water management, as well as nutrient and carbon cycles. These challenges are transboundary and a coherent European approach is long overdue.
