The European Commission and the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU reassured the European Parliament in a debate, on Monday evening 26 April, of their determination to commit to soil protection at EU level (see EUROPE 12700/9).
“The revision of the 2006 strategy is not enough to fill the gaps. We call for a general and common legal framework that will deal with all threats on the soil and ensure policy coherence”, stressed Martin Hojsík (Renew Europe, Slovakia), on behalf of the six major European Parliament political groups that are sponsoring the resolution, which will be voted on Wednesday.
Commissioner for Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius assured that “in the coming months the Commission will act”. It will propose, as part of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, a framework that will provide a new dynamic to soil protection with steps to strengthen existing protection and reduce threats.
“We are also working on a legislative proposal for nature restoration targets this year, to restore degraded ecosystems, including soils, and will accelerate protection in different ways“, he said.
Soil decontamination as part of the ‘Zero Pollution’ Action Plan. In addition to the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy, which includes measures to reduce the use of pesticides and antimicrobials, he mentioned the ‘Zero Pollution’ Action Plan for water, air and soil, which the Commission will present in May (in principle on the 18th).
“This action plan will deal with contaminated soil. Progress will be observed through the soil protection monitoring that will be hosted by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and through Copernicus”, said the Commissioner.
The representative of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, for her part, stressed that the Council, in conclusions adopted in October 2020, had expressed its support for better soil protection in order to achieve the objective of neutrality of soil degradation by 2030 and its willingness to progress towards the objective of zero land loss by 2050.
She also recalled the recent agreement between the Parliament and the EU Council on the LIFE regulation, which mentions the improvement of soil quality in its article 3.
In addition, the EU Council’s mandate on the 8th Environmental Action Programme sets out a procedure for a ‘Zero Pollution’ ambition for a toxic-free environment, with the strengthening of natural capital in the context of combating desertification and land degradation.
The representative also assured that the “EU Council remains fully committed to the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 15.3 to combat desertification, restore degraded lands (by desertification, floods) and achieve degradation neutrality”.
See the European Parliament draft resolution: https://bit.ly/3np9oxv (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)