Soil Governance in current European Union Law and in the European Green Deal

Abstract

The chapter deals with the system of soil governance in the European Union and focuses on legal instruments for the protection and sustainable use of soil. In addition, other aspects of soil governance, like the policies, strategies, and the processes of decision-making, are addressed. Reference points for this assessment are the identified soil threats in the EU and the need for soil protection, based on the results of scientific studies, especially of the Intergovernmental Platform on Climate Change (IPCC 2019) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IP-BES 2018). Currently, there is no comprehensive directive to address soil threats and soil-related issues in a coherent way in the European Union, although several legal instruments refer to certain soil threats, mainly in the field of soil pollution. The European Union has the competence for soil legislation and, on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity, would be legally able to enact it. Therefore, the current mosaic of approaches can be overcome and replaced by an overall harmonised and comprehensive EU soil protection framework. This is all the more true as the United Nations' 2030 Agenda has set in motion a process that will have far-reaching implications for connected thinking: Sustainable Development Goal 15 and its target 15.3 stipulate that land degradation neutrality should be achieved by 2030, although this is not binding. This requires more than the envisaged revision of the 2006 Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection. In particular, possible legal instruments to protect soils from chemical, biological and physical threats need to be reviewed and further developed. The chapter also explains why elements of the European Green Deal are once again falling short of the need to protect Europe's soils, and, for this purpose, analyzes the EU Climate Law, the Biodiversity Strategy, the Zero Pollution Strategy and the Farm to Fork Strategy in particular. It concludes that the time is ripe for the EU to finally become aware of the importance of soils and to act responsibly and unlike 2007, when the former Soil Protection Framework Directive failed in the Environmental Council. Only through joint efforts and effective action can Member States prevent soils from deteriorating further, becoming unusable, and the loss of soil quality and quantity leading to damage to people and the environment.