Tag: soil

Amid resistance from EU ministers, Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik has defended an EU directive on soil by claiming that national policies are not delivering and land management increasingly affects cross-border issues like climate change, biodiversity and water pollution.

As the world's population approaches ten billion, issues like climate change, growing scarcity of oil and availability of quality land and water are challenging the planet's capacity to produce enough food for everyone - a paradigm shift that could potentially pave the way for a new global 'food crunch'.

Soils are crucial for storing CO2 and must be protected as part of the fight against climate change, according to the Commission, which wants to breathe new life into a proposed framework directive on soil protection that was rejected by a small group of member states last December.

Overriding a motion by 225 MEPs who argued that there should be 'no rush' to legislate on soil protection, the Parliament has voted in favour of a proposed EU soil protection law that grants considerable flexibility to member states. 

Ahead of a November plenary vote, MEPs in the Parliament's Environment Committee voted on 9 October in favour of a Commission proposal that gives member states considerable room for manouevre on soil protection.

As the deadline for transposition closed on 30 April 2007, Italy, Lithuania and Latvia were the only member states to have transposed the Environmental Liability Directive into national law. The Commission may consider legal action against the remaining countries.

The Commission is continuing with its series of internet consultations on future environmental policies with a debate on how to protect European soils from pollution.