On Wednesday 5 July, as part of its ‘food and biodiversity’ legislative package, the European Commission will present a proposal for a directive on soil health – the backbone of the EU Soil Strategy 2030 adopted in 2021 to “reap the benefits of healthy soil for people, food, nature and climate” (see EUROPE 12834/2).
This future ‘European Green Deal’ legislation, which is legally binding regarding objectives, will be anchored in the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 of May 2020 (see EUROPE 12491/2).
Initially planned as part of a package called ‘sustainable food systems’ (see EUROPE 13186/33) and postponed several times (see EUROPE 13191/25), it should attempt to remedy the multiple pressures – erosion, pesticide residues in 80% of soils, pollutants such as cadmium (80% of soils contain it), artificialisation, compaction – exerted on a non-renewable resource that is essential to life if it is healthy.
However, 67% of Europe’s soil is in a poor state and this is a trend that is set to worsen, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA), the source of the data. Hence the need to act more decisively, going beyond the environmental conditions set out in the Common Agricultural Policy, which are useful but do not come with precise terms of reference for regenerating soils in poor condition, according to the European Commission.
The proposed directive should aim to tackle the situation more resolutely through measures that are based on scientific indicators and an EU-wide monitoring network.
To enable monitoring, the EEA has recently developed indicators for soil organic carbon, nutrients, acidification, pollution, biodiversity, erosion, compaction and sealing and, for each of these, it has identified thresholds beyond which soil functioning – for example for water purification or food production – is adversely affected (see EUROPE 13103/7). According to the EEA, these thresholds can be regarded as critical tipping points for soil health and action points for safeguarding it.
A proposal for a Soil Directive in 2006 was rejected years ago by the EU’s Council of Ministers. This is a risk that could be repeated, judging by the controversy surrounding the proposal for a regulation on the restoration of nature, which also stems from the EU’s biodiversity strategy and aims to restore at least 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas (see EUROPE 13210/6).
However, the scientific data available to the EU regarding the condition of soils since the initial rejection of the Soil Directive, and the expected benefits to the economy of healthy soils, could minimise this risk. Soil erosion alone can lead to a 50% reduction in agricultural yields, resulting in an economic loss of more than €250 billion, according to the European Commission. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)