Why soil matters?

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14 Why soils matters - A european perspective
Proceedings of the Conference
security.
From 2000 to 2006, 0.26% of the
in
the EU-27 was lost as a consequence
of land take; over the period 1990–
2006, this loss amounted to 0.81%.
In order to clarify the work of the
Commission on this issue, Andrea
Vettori reminded the audience that
DG ENVI has a unit taking care of
the soil issue. Th
(SFD) was
withdrawn by the Commission in May
2014, after 8 years of negotiations
and a blocking minority of 5 Member
States in the Council. Despite the
unsuccessful experience of the soil
framework directive, the Commission
continues to work on the basis of a
adopted in
2006 and based on 4 pillars: aware-
ness raising, (events and publica-
tions), research (EU Funded research
projects/ FP6-7 and Horizon 2020,
LIFE/LIFE+, soil data collection),
integration of soil issues into other
policies and legislation (based on the
of the European Com-
mission, following the withdrawal of
the Soil Framework Directive, to reach
the objective of soil protection and to
examine how to best achieve it).
The EC is also working on soil in
the framework of the 7th EAP. The
latter sets out that by 2020: “land is
managed sustainably in the Union,
soil is adequately protected and the
remediation of contaminated sites is
well underway. On the other hand,
under the 7th EAP, the Union and
its Member States are committed to
reflect as soon as possible on how
soil quality issues could be addressed
using a targeted and proportionate
risk-based approach within a binding
legal framework.
More concretely, in October 2015,
the European Commission set up an
expert group on Soil protection, with
experts nominated by all EU Member
States, who, over the next several
years, will work on how to address
the 7th EAP commitments on soil.
Another ongoing action under the EU
Soil Thematic Strategy is to make an
inventory of soil protection measures
in all EU Member States, and to start
a Pilot Mapping and Assessment
of Soil-related Ecosystem Services
(MAES) project.
The EU also has an international
mandate on soil protection, according
to which the EU members states will
have to reflect on how international
objectives fit with EU policies.
There are also considerations of the
soil issue in the
: that which is taken from
the biomass should go back to soil, to
increase the organic matter of soil.
To achieve all these concrete
actions, the European Commission
still needs to widen stakeholder
participation in the process,
to include farmers, scientists,
NGOs, urban planners and health
professionals. Member States and
civil society should then agree on the
gaps at national level and on possible
solutions at EU level to fill these gaps.
Soil is about more than the soil framework directive’
Andrea Vettori
The European Commission
still needs to widen
stakeholders participation
in the process