The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has just adopted an opinion on “Land use for sustainable food production and ecosystem services”. Land use is also one of the priorities of the Estonian Presidency of the Council, which hopes to have conclusions adopted by EU agriculture ministers at their meeting in Brussels on 6 November.
“In the course of six years, between 2006 and 2012, some 107,000 hectares of land was taken for artificial development annually in European states, leading to the loss of arable land equivalent in size to Cyprus. This excessive pressure on land has to cease”, said EESC rapporteur Roomet Sõrmus. The loss of agricultural land due to soil degradation, the abandonment of land, climate change and urbanisation poses a serious problem not only for food production but also for the provision of numerous other ecosystem services.
European regulatory framework complicated to change
The EESC proposes, therefore, with a view to the modernisation of the common agricultural policy (CAP), that particular attention be paid to the fertility of agricultural land and that member states should be encouraged, within the framework of the second pillar of the CAP, to adopt appropriate soil protection measures.
The EESC suggests, further, that the existing EU framework be updated in order to protect agricultural land in the member states. This, however, is a complicated issue on which to make progress at Community level. The European Commission’s draft framework directive on soil protection, which included tightening legislation to protect land from erosion and to limit biodiversity loss and climate change, had to be abandoned in 2014 after years of deadlock.
A European citizens’ initiative to save Europe’s soil was launched but it came to nothing as it failed to win the required level of support and so was closed in September.
The full report is available at: http://bit.ly/2z07fPB