Soils

The EU Soils Thematic Strategy was adopted by the European Commission in September 2006, along with a draft Soils Framework Directive and Impact Assessment , which can be downloaded from http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/index.htm.

This soil thematic strategy seeks to:

• Establish common principles for the protection and sustainable use of soils
• Prevent threats to soils, and mitigate the effects of those threats
• Preserve soil functions within the context of sustainable use
• Restore degraded and contaminated soils to approved levels of functionality.

As drafted there are four key elements to the Directive:

1. Identification of areas at risk of soil erosion, organic matter decline, compaction, salinisation and landslides and for Member States to establish programmes of measures
2. Measures to address soil contamination including actions on Member States to establish an inventory of contaminated sites, production of soil status reports and establishing a national strategy for remediation of contaminated sites identified
3. Measures on soil sealing requiring Member States to take appropriate steps to minimise soil sealing and its effects
4. Awareness raising, reporting and exchange of information.