Strasbourg, 14/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - The highly controversial proposed framework directive on soil protection has finally gained the blessing of the European Parliament, in Strasbourg on 14 November. Going along with the Spanish MEP Cristina Gutierrez-Cortines (EPP-ED), the author of a report on this future legislation to accompany the thematic strategy of the EU, which was approved the day before, the plenary session decided by a majority (496 votes in favour, 161 against 22 abstentions) that it is appropriate to legislate at European level to promote the sustainable use of soils, prevent their degradation or, by default, limit and correct the consequences of this phenomenon. But it was only possible to get the directive through by providing for sufficient flexibility to leave it up to the Member States to decide on which measures to adopt to achieve the common objective of soil protection.
The resolution of the Parliament subscribes to the idea that the Member States will draw up a national inventory, to be open to the public, of contaminated sites, but also calls for the possibility to create regional directories to be updated at least every five years, to include new contaminated sites and to remove those which have been cleaned up. Under the precise definition added by the MEPs to the initial text of the Commission, “a contaminated site” must be understood as being any site where dangerous substances are present, on or in the soil, which were caused by human activity and presenting a significant risk to health. Five years after the directive has been transposed, the Member States must identify priority areas to be the subject of special protection against erosion, the decline in organic matter, loss of biodiversity, compaction, salinisation, landslides, desertification and acidification. The list of these areas will be revised every 10 years. The Parliament takes the view that the Member States should be allowed to choose for themselves how they will fight these factors in the degradation of the soil.
Six years after the directive has been transposed into their national legislation, the Member States must, as a minimum, have identified the sites which have hosted or still are hosting activities affecting the soil, including activities which may cause major industrial accidents, or sites with mining installations or waste disposal. The Member States must appoint one or more competent authorities tasked with listing potentially contaminated sites and the management of the inventory.
The Parliament agrees with the Commission that, seven years after the transposition of the directive, the strategies should be updated and published by the Member States, but “at the administrative level they find appropriate”. It will be up to the Member States to ensure that the contaminated sites on their territory are cleansed, in accordance with the priorities which they must set in place, or which they have already established. For the cleansing operations, the MEPs would like the Member States to be encouraged to use the best techniques available. In order to make life easier for them, the Parliament will subject cleansing operations to a prior cost/benefit analysis: if the resources necessary to carry out these operations “are not technically available or represent a disproportionate cost compared to the environmental advantages anticipated”, the sites can be conditioned in such a way as not to constitute a major risk for the environment of public health. The text which was voted upon did not please the opponents of a directive which was felt to run counter to the principle of subsidiarity. The Greens/DFA, for their part, regret the fact that the “already weak” text of the Commission has been further watered down, but to take the view that “the worst has been avoided”. (A.N)