Changes from plenary report to adopted text

Added(42) To ensure synergies between the different measures adopted under other Union legislation that may have an impact on soil health, and the measures that are to be put in place to sustainably manage and regenerate soils in the Union, Member States should ensure that the sustainable soil management and regeneration practices are coherent with the national restoration plans adopted in accordance with Regulation (UE) …/… of the European Parliament and of the Council+; the national biodiversity strategies and action plans established in accordance with Article 6 of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, the strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States under the Common Agricultural Policy in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/2115, the codes of good agricultural practices and the action programmes for designated vulnerable zones adopted in accordance with Council Directive 91/676/EEC, the conservation measures and prioritized action framework established for Natura 2000 sites in accordance with Council Directive 92/43/EEC, the measures for achieving good ecological and chemical status of water bodies included in river basin management plans prepared in accordance with Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, the flood risk management measures established in accordance with Directive 2007/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, the drought management plans promoted in the Union Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change, the national action programmes established in accordance with Article 10 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, targets set out under Regulation (EU) 2018/841 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EU) 2018/842 of the European Parliament and of the Council, the integrated national energy and climate plans established in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council, the national air pollution control programmes prepared under Directive (EU) 2016/2284 of the European Parliament and of the Council, risk assessments and disaster risk management planning established in accordance with Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, and national action plans established in accordance with Regulation (UE) …/…Directive 2009/128/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council+. Sustainable soil management and regeneration practices should be, as far as possible, integrated within these programmes, plans and measures to the extent that they contribute to the achievement of their objectives. Consequently, relevant indicators and data, such as soil-related result indicators under the CAP Regulation and statistical data on agricultural input and output reported under Regulation (EU) 2022/2379 of the European Parliament and of the Council, should be accessible to the competent authorities responsible for sustainable soil management and regeneration practices and soil health assessment in order to cross-link these data and indicators and thus enable the most accurate possible assessment of the effectiveness of the measures chosen. [Am. 30]

Added(43) Contaminated sites are the legacy of decades of industrial activity in the EU and may lead to risks for human and animal health and the environment now and in the future. Building on existing knowledge, it is therefore necessary first to identify and investigate potentially contaminated sites and then, in case of confirmed contamination, to assess the risks and take measures to address unacceptable risksthem. Soil investigation may prove that a potentially contaminated site is in fact not contaminated. In that case, the site should no longer be labelled by the Member State as potentially contaminated, unless contamination is suspected based on new evidence. [Am. 31]

Added(44) To identify potentially contaminated sites, Member States should collect evidence among others through historical research, past industrial incidents and accidents, environmental permits, health surveys and notifications by the public or authorities. [Am. 32]

Added(45) In order to ensure that soil investigations on potentially contaminated sites are carried out timely and effectively, as requested in the European Parliament´s resolution of 28 April 2021 on soil protection, Member States should, in addition to the obligation to lay down the deadline by which those investigations should be carried out, be required to lay down specific events that also trigger such investigation. Such triggering events may include the request or review of an environmental or building permit or an authorisation required pursuant to Union legislation or national legislation, soil excavation activities, land use changes or land or real estate transactions. Soil investigations may follow different stages, such as a desk study, site visit, preliminary or exploratory investigation, more detailed or descriptive investigation, and field or laboratory testing. Baseline reports and monitoring measures implemented in accordance with Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council could also qualify as soil investigation where appropriate. [Am. 33]

Added(46) Flexibility for the management of potentially contaminated sites and contaminated sites is needed to take account of costs, benefits and local specificities. Member States should therefore at least adopt a risk-based approach for managing potentially contaminated sites and contaminated sites, taking into account the difference between these two categories, and which allows to allocate resources taking account of the specific environmental, economic and social context. Decisions should be taken in cooperation with local health practitioners, health authorities and the scientific community, based on the nature and extent of potential risks for human health and the environment resulting from exposure to soil contaminants (e.g. exposure of vulnerable populations such as pregnant women, persons with disabilities, elderly people and children), including exposure, and cumulative effects on human health, soil ecosystems and associated ecosystem services. The cost-benefit analysis of undertaking remediation should be positivebalanced, taking into account the advantages for future generations. The optimum remediation solution should be sustainable and selected through a balanced decision-making process that takes account of the environmental, economic and social impacts. The management of potentially contaminated sites and contaminated sites should respect the polluter-pays, precautionary and proportionality principles. Member States should lay down the specific methodology for determining the site-specific risks of contaminated sites. Member States should also define what constitutes an unacceptable risk from a contaminated site based on scientific knowledge, the precautionary principle, local specificitiesthe opinion of health authorities and practitioners, and current and future land use. In order to reduce the risks of contaminated sites to an acceptable level for human and animal health and the environment, Member States should take adequate risk reduction measures, while prioritising in- or ex-situ including remediation. It should be possible to qualify measures taken under other Union legislation as risk reduction measures under this Directive when those measures effectively reduce risks posed by contaminated sites. [Am. 34]

Added(46a) Land take mitigation principles should facilitate the Union´s food security while taking into account sustainable housing, essential infrastructure and renewable energy projects. [Am. 35]

Added(47) Measures taken pursuant to this Directive should also take account of other EU policy objectives, such as the objectives pursued by [Regulation (EU) xxxx/xxxx+] that aim at ensuring secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials for Europe’s industry.

Added(48) Transparency is an essential component of soil policy and ensures public accountability and awareness, fair market conditions and the monitoring of progress. Therefore, Member States should set up and maintain a national register of contaminated sites and potentially contaminated sites which contains site-specific information that should be made publicly accessible in an online georeferenced spatial database. The register should contain the information that is necessary for the public to be informed on the existence and on the management of potentially contaminated sites and contaminated sites. Because the presence of soil contamination is not yet confirmed but only suspected on potentially contaminated sites, the difference between contaminated sites and potentially contaminated sites has to be communicated and explained well to the public to avoid raising unnecessary concern.

Added(48a) In order to protect soils from pollution by emerging chemicals that have the potential to cause significant risks to human and animal health and to contaminate surrounding air, surface waters, groundwater, and subsequently oceans, policy mechanisms to detect and assess such substances of emerging concern should be established. In that regard, an approach that allows monitoring and analysis of those substances or groups of substances via watch lists, as is already the case for surface water and groundwater, should be developed for soil contamination. The substances or groups of substances to be placed on the watch list should be selected from amongst those substances for which the information available indicates that they could pose a significant risk at Union level to, or via, the soil environment, and for which the monitoring data are insufficient. The number of such substances or groups of substances to be monitored and analysed under the watch lists should not be limited. [Am. 37]

Added(48b) Substances such as persistent organic pollutants, materials and particles, including microplastics or nanoplastics, pose a clear risk to soil health, but also to essential activities such as the development of agriculture. Their presence in soils can have implications for soil fertility, thereby compromising the health and healthy development of crops. It is therefore essential that this Directive provide for a framework for both substances and materials to be included in the monitoring of soil contaminants, and for the establishment of environmental quality standards and a set of measures to prevent and remediate soil contamination from known and emerging threats, where appropriate. [Am. 38]

Added(49) Article 19(1) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) requires Member States to provide remedies sufficient to ensure effective judicial protection in the fields covered by Union law. In addition, in accordance with the Convention on access to information, public participation in decision‐making and access to justice in environmental matters (Aarhus Convention), members of the public concerned should have access to justice in order to contribute to the protection of the right to live in an environment which is adequate for personal health and well-being.

Added(50) Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council mandates the release of public sector data in free and open formats. The overall objective is to continue the strengthening of the EU’s data economy by increasing the amount of interoperable public sector data available for re-use, ensuring fair competition and easy access to public sector information, and enhancing cross-border innovation based on data. The main principle is that government data should be open by default and design. Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council is aimed at guaranteeing the right of access to environmental information in the Member States in line with the Aarhus Convention. The Aarhus Convention and Directive 2003/4/EC encompass broad obligations related both to making environmental information available upon request and actively disseminating such information. Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council is also of broad scope, covering the sharing of spatial information, including data sets on different environmental topics. It is important that provisions of this Directive related to access to information and data-sharing arrangements complement those Directives and do not create a separate legal regime. Therefore, the provisions of this Directive regarding information to the public and information on monitoring of implementation should be without prejudice to Directives (EU) 2019/1024, 2003/4/EC and 2007/2/EC. [Am. 39]

Added(51) In order to ensure the necessary adaptation of the rules on soil health monitoring, sustainable soil managementassessment and management of contaminated sites, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of amending or supplementing this Directive to adopt a methodology for determining threshold values for soil descriptors to be established by Member States, and to adapt to technical and scientific progress the methodologies for monitoring soil health, the list of sustainable soil management principles, the indicative list of risk reduction measures, the phases and requirements for the site-specific risk assessment and the contentestablishment of the register of contaminated and potentiallyminimum tolerable values in relation to the definition of an unacceptable risk for health and the environment resulting from contaminated sites. It is of particular importance that the Commission carries out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making of 13 April 2016. In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts. [Am. 40]

Added(52) In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Directive, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission in order to set out the format, structure and detailed arrangements for reporting data and information electronically to the Commission. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and the Council.

Added(53) The Commission should carry out an evidence-based evaluation and, where relevant, a revision of this Directive, 6 years after its entry into force on the basis of the results of the soil health assessment. The evaluation should assess in particular the need to set more specific requirements to make sure unhealthy soils are regenerated and the objectivegap and measures needed to achieve healthy soils by 2050 is achieved. The evaluation should also assess the need to adapt the definition of healthy soils to scientific and technical progress by adding provisions on certain descriptors or criteria based on new scientific evidence relating to the protection of soils or on the grounds of a problem specific to a Member State arising from new environmental or climatic circumstances. Pursuant to paragraph 22 of the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making, that evaluation should be based on the criteria of efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, coherence and EU value added and should provide the basis for impact assessments of possible further measures. [Am. 41]

Added(54) Coordinated measures by all Member States are necessary to achieve the vision to have all soils healthy by 2050 and to secure the provision of ecosystem services by soils across the Union in the long-term. Individual actions of Member States have proven to be insufficient since the soil degradation is continuing and even deteriorating. Since the objectives of this Directive cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of the scale and effects of the action, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 TEU. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.

Added(55) In accordance with the Joint Political Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member States and the Commission on explanatory documents, Member States have undertaken to accompany, in justified cases, the notification of their transposition measures with one or more documents explaining the relationship between the components of a directive and the corresponding parts of national transposition instruments. With regard to this Directive, the legislator considers the transmission of such documents to be justified.

Added(55a) This Directive is aimed at meeting the long-term objective of healthy soil in the Union by 2050 based on a coherent framework for soil monitoring and improvement of its health. Given its nature as a directive, in accordance with Article 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, this Directive is binding as to the result to be achieved in the Member States to whom it is addressed, while leaving national authorities the power to choose the form and methods to achieve the result. It will therefore be up to Member States to devise their own laws on how to reach the goals laid down in this Directive. The proposed instrument of a directive leaves much flexibility to the Member States to identify the best measures for them and to adapt the approach to local conditions. This is crucial to take account of the regional and local specificities as regards soil variability, land use, climatological conditions and socio-economic aspects. The nature of the instrument implies that principles laid down in this Directive do not entail direct obligations on individuals. [Am. 42]

AddedHAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

AddedChapter I General provisions

AddedArticle 1 Objective and Subject matter

Added1. The objective of the Directive is to put in place a clear, solid and, coherent and flexible framework for soil monitoring frameworkand assessment for all soils across the EU andin order to continuously improve soil health in the Union with the view to achieve healthy soils by 2050 and maintain soils in healthy condition, and prevent their deterioration so that they can supply multiple ecosystem services at a scale sufficient to meet environmental, societal and economic needs, prevent and mitigate the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss, increase the resilience against natural disasters and for food security and that soil contamination is reduced to levels no longer considered harmful to human health and the environment.

AddedThis Directive, therefore, establishes a framework within which Member States are required to put in place measures that are technically feasible and based on a cost-benefit analysis, with a view to achieving healthy soils by 2050. [Am. 43]

Added1a. This Directive contributes to fulfilling international and Union-level commitments, objectives and goals, including those contained in:

Added(a) the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework;

Added(b) the Paris Agreement;

Added(c) the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD);

Added(d) the 7th EU Environment Action Programme (Decision No 1386/2013/EU);

Added(e) the 8th EU Environment Action Programme (Decision (EU) 2022/591);

Added(f) the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe (COM/2011/0571). [Am. 44]

Added2. This Directive lays down measures on:

Added(a) monitoring, maintaining, improving, rehabilitating and assessing and assessment of soil health, based on its ecological status; [Am. 45]

Added(b) sustainable soil management;

Added(c) contaminated sites.

AddedArticle 2 Scope

AddedThis Directive applies to all soils in the territory of Member States.

AddedArticle 3 Definitions

AddedFor the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply:

Added(1) ‘soil’ means the top layer of the Earth’s crust situated between the bedrock and the land surface, which is composed of mineral particles, organic matter, water, air and living organisms, excluding raw material deposits; [Ams. 217 and 266]

Added(1a) ‘soil ecological status’ means the ecological quality of a soil evaluated according to the soil’s diversity, biological and functional activity, habitat and the presence of degradation factors, and determined according to the following classification:

Added(a) ‘high soil ecological status’ refers to soils with high biological and functional activity;

Added(b) ‘good ecological status’ refers to soils in an overall good ecological status but that show evidence of slight adverse impacts from one or multiple degradation factors;

Added(c) ‘moderate ecological status’ refers to soils with evidence of slight adverse impacts from degradation factors;

Added(d) ‘degraded soils’ refers to soils with clear evidence of adverse impacts from one degradation factor; and

Added(e) ‘critically degraded soils’ refers to soils with clear evidence of adverse impacts from more than one degradation factor; [Am. 46]

Added(1b) ‘soil ecological functions’ means the set of interrelated processes and interactions within the soil ecosystem that sustain life, support and are the result of soil biodiversity and maintain the overall health and productivity of terrestrial environments, such as nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition, soil structure formation, water filtration and purification, carbon sequestration, and the provision of habitats and resources for a diverse range of organisms; [Am. 47]

Added(2) ‘ecosystem’ means a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit;

Added(3) ‘ecosystem services’ means direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to the wellbeing of society as a whole, and economic, social, cultural, environmental and other benefits that people derive from those ecosystems; [Am. 48]

Added(3a) ‘soil biodiversity’ means the variation in soil life, from genes to communities, and the ecological complexes of which they are part, that is complexes ranging from soil micro-habitats to landscapes; [Am. 49]

Added(4) ‘soil health’ means the physical, chemical, functional and biological condition of the soil determining its capacity to function as a vital living system and to provide ecosystem services, taking land use into account; [Am. 50]

Added(5) ‘sustainable soil management’ means soil management practices that aim to maintain or enhance the soil ecosystem services provided by the soil without impairing the functions enabling those services, or being detrimental to other properties of the environmenttaking into account the socio-economic effects; [Am. 247]

Added(6) ‘soil management practices’ mean practices that impact the physical, chemical or biological qualities of a soil;

Added(7) ‘managed soils’ means soils where soil management practices are carried out;

Added(8) ‘soil district’ means the part of the territory of a Member State or several Member States, as delimited by that Member State or those Member States in accordance with this Directive; [Am. 52]

Added(9) ‘soil health assessment’ means the evaluation of the health of the soil based on the measurement or estimation of soil descriptors;

Added(10) ‘contaminated site’ means a delineated area of one or several plots with confirmed presence of soil contamination caused by point-source anthropogenic activitiesthe presence of a substance or material in the soil in a concentration that may be harmful to health or the environment; [Am. 53]

Added(11) ‘soil descriptor’ means a parameter describing a physical, chemical, or biological characteristic of soil health;

Added(12) ‘land’ means the surface of the Earth that is not covered by water;

Added(13) ‘land cover’ means the physical and biological cover of the earth’s surface;

Added(14) ‘natural land’ means an area where human activity has not substantially modified an area’s primary ecological functions and species composition;