1 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Panos Panagos, Luca Montanarella, Arwyn Jones Soil Related policies in EU: The EU Thematic Strategy on Soil Protection

2 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Bruxelles, COM(2006)232 Proposal for a DIRECTIVE of the European Parliament and of the Council. Establishing a framework for the protection of Soil. A strategy to keep Europe's soils robust and healthy Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection

3 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection 3 Components (Adopted by Commission 22/9/2006): DIRECTIVE establishing a framework for the protection of soil risk from erosion, compaction, salinisation, decline of soil organic matter, landslides, contamination, sealing and loss of soil biodiversity COMMUNICATION on the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection: Why further action is needed? IMPACT ASSESSMENT Report: Analysis of economic, social and environmental impacts The strategy is one of 7 Thematic Strategies that the Commission has presented. The other strategies cover air pollution, the marine environment, waste prevention and recycling, natural resources, the urban environment and pesticides..

4 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Food and other biomass production –Agriculture Storage, filtering, and transformation –Water protection Habitat and gene pool –Nature protection Physical and cultural environment for mankind –Archeology and cultural heritage Source of raw materials –Peat, Sand, Clay, etc…. Soil as a non-renewable natural resource with multiple functions:

5 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 The impact of human activities on soil Blocking of soil functions important to the ecology of the landscape Destruction of soil Gradual destruction of soils Reduction in soil fertility Soil erosion Manures and fertilisers Sewage sludge Gravel extraction Compaction Gradual disappearance of farms Pesticides & herbicides Destruction of soil Changes in the structure of soils Reduction in soil fertility Sealing Distruction of humus Accumulation/ Contamination Heavy metals Contamination of soils and ground water with applied agrochemicals and atmospheric pollutants Changes in soil composition Adverse impacts on living organisms in the soil Acidification Release of toxic substances Acids Diffuse input of contaminants as particulates Persistent substances Salinisation

6 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Soil is a non renewable natural resource of common interest to Europe. European environmental legislation is incomplete without soil policy Soil degradation has transboundary consequences Differences among Member States in dealing with soil problems may distort competition within the single market As soil contamination may affect the quality of food and feed products The health of the European population can be impaired as a result of soil degradation Why act at EU Level?

7 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Threats to soil as identified in COM(2002) 179 Erosion Decline in organic matter Soil contamination Soil sealing Soil compaction Decline in soil biodiversity Salinisation Floods and landslides

8 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Consultation Process: Soil Policy Development Organisational Set-up Advisory Forum Chair DG ENV Stakeholders meetings Chair DG ENV TWG 1 Monitoring Germany/JRC Co-chair UK TWG 2 Erosion Spain/Belgium Co-chair EEB TWG 3 Organic matter France Co-chair IUSS/FEAD TWG 4 Contamination Austria/NL Co-chair EEA ISWG = Interservice Working Group TWG = Technical Working Group Commission ISWG Chair DG ENV Technical co-ordination group and secretariat Chair DG ENV TWG5 Research W. Blum/ RTD Co-chair ELO

9 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September Reports: Produced by the Working Groups

10 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Annual cost of soil degradation Though difficult to estimate, several studies demonstrate significant annual costs of soil degradation to society in the ranges of: erosion: 0.7 – 14.0 billion[1],[1] organic matter decline: 3.4 – 5.6 billion, compaction:no estimate possible, salinisation: 158 – 321 million[2],[2] landslides: up to 1.2 billion per event, contamination:0.6 – 17.3 billion[3],[3] sealing:no estimate possible, biodiversity decline:no estimate possible. [1][1] This estimate covers only costs of erosion in 13 countries, including the major Member States where erosion occurs. Data is not available for the others. [2][2] This estimate covers only the costs of salinisation in three countries, data is not available for others. [3][3] An independent study estimated that the costs of soil contamination could amount annually to up to 208 billion. Nevertheless this estimate had a high degree of uncertainty, therefore the intermediate value of 17.3 billion per year was retained.

11 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Erosion, organic matter decline, salinisation, compaction and landslides 5 Soil Threats:

12 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Contamination

13 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September Significant collaboration with DG Environment. 2.JRC / Land Management Natural Hazards Unit provided considerable input into formulation of text. 3.Impact Assessment document – ESBN Report. 4.Soil Atlas, European Soil Portal and JRC Summer School specifically mentioned. 5.European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) = heart of European soil information for foreseeable future. JRC and Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection

14 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 The adoption of the Directive by the European Parliament and the Council could take two years Afterwards, The Member States (MS) will transpose it into national legislation and start implementing. The general provisions of the Directive are into force from that moment on Within 5 years after the transposition, MS will have to identify risk areas Within 2 years afterwards, they will have to adopt targets and a programme of measures to reach these targets and report to the European Commission Report every 5 years Within 5 years, the MS will also have to achieve a preliminary inventory of contaminated sites. Within 7 years, the MS have to establish a national remediation strategy in order to manage their contaminated sites Next Steps?

15 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September European Soil Database & Soil Portal

16 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 The Pan-European Soil Erosion Risk Assessment - PESERA - is a process-based and spatially distributed model to quantify soil erosion by water and assess its risk across Europe Policy Example: PESERA Soil Erosion Risk Assessment

17 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Results: PESERA Soil Erosion Risk Assessment

18 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Local Scale: Validation of research - building confidence Central Belgium (Verstraeten and Poesen, K.U.Leuven) Czech Republic (Dostal et al., CVUT Prague) Spain (Avendano Salas et al., Devente, Poesen and Verstraeten) Italy (Bazzoffi et al., ISSDS, Firenze)

19 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 European Level: Aggregated results

20 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 The new system of European Data Centers for the environment (the group of four) DG ENV Data requirements EEA Climate Change Water Air Land use Biodiversity JRC Soil Forest EUROSTAT Waste Natural resources IPP

21 ESBN Workshop, Zagreb, September 2006 Thank you for your interest! Unity in diversity