20 June 2024
Updates

Following the proposal of the European Commission for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU have settled their positions. The Parliament adopted on its position on 10 April (336 votes in favour, 242 against, and 33 abstentions), and the  Council adopted its General Approach on 17 June.

The European Commission had published its proposal back in July 2023, on which CEPF also gave feedback. The original proposal included for example sustainable soil management principles to be gradually implemented on all managed soils and regeneration practices to be gradually implemented on all unhealthy soils. Reporting was required at minimum at the level of NUTS1 regions, and Member States were expected to establish voluntary certification schemes for healthy soil. The impact assessment called for limiting the burden on the landowners, land managers, and Member States, by not requiring the Member States to create soil health plans or programmes of measures.

The Parliament’s position calls for a different kind of monitoring system with three tiers of different specificity meant to help the Member States make use of their pre-existing systems. The Parliament added a new concept of five-step soil ecological status, on top of the Commission’s division to natural, semi-natural and artificial land; and references to mandatory listing by Member States of sustainable soil management practices are deleted. Landowner’s privacy was also taken into consideration as the Parliament added that the soil health data should be made accessible publicly only with a permission from the landowner and manager, and even then in an aggregated and anonymised form.

In its General Approach, the Council added a number of optional soil descriptors and as a first step towards the Soil Strategy’s goal of no net land take by 2050, focused more on tackling soil sealing and destroyed soils. 

Of the original Commission proposal, both Parliament and Council rejected the certification schemes, the minimum extent of the NUTS1 regions reporting, and the provision that the Commission may adopt delegated acts to amend the sustainable soil management principles. 

The exact impact of the proposed directive on the forest sector will depend on the result of the trilogue negotiations, as it will be seen e.g. what form and wording the sustainable soil management principles, the regeneration requirements, and data aggregation take.