As part of its 'fit for growth' push to make EU regulation "lighter, simpler and cheaper," the EU Commission announced this week that it will revisit the proposed Soil Framework Directive, which has been stalled in draft form for over five years.

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The proposed Directive was drafted in 2006; if passed, it would recognise soil as a non-renewable resource and seek to bring "scattered" national legislation governing soils into a cohesive framework. Such frameworks already exist for other non-renewable resources such as coal.

In the case of the Soil Directive, landowners would be responsible for protecting soil from degradation, a major problem around the world.  

The EU said on Wednesday that, "Despite the efforts of several Presidencies, the Council has so far been unable to reach a qualified majority on this legislative proposal due to the opposition of a number of Member States constituting a blocking minority." The blocking minority in the council includes ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

Although consultation on soil protection in the EU between 2003 and 2006, when the Directive was tabled, revealed legislation in force at the time did not cover all threats to the vital resource, the blocking minority in the Council of Ministers have maintained that measures introduced under the Soil Directive would be "disproportionate." These ministers have succeeded in blocking the proposals' progress since 2007.

The Commission announced this week that it will "examine how the objectives of the proposed directive can be best achieved," including potentially withdrawing the draft Directive. It will investigate the feasibility of progressing with the Directive by May 2014, the time of the European Parliament Elections.

The NFU, which has consistently lobbied against the Directive, said on Thursday that the union does "not believe that there is a need for additional legislation in this area [because] Soils in the UK, and across the EU, are already protected by a range of laws and regulations."

In a statement, NFU continued, "Farmers have an inherent interest in maintaining their land in good condition and in assuring its long-term fertility and productivity, and we believe that these can be supported through carefully targeted advice and information, voluntary action, partnerships and a greater emphasis on monitoring and research, but not another legislative proposal."

September report reveals soils under threat on over half EU territory

However, a report released last month and co-authored by the EU Commission's in-house scientific advisory service, the Joint Research Centre, revealed that soil biodiversity is under threat in 56 percent of EU territory. The JRC report held up "intense land exploitation estimated as the main pressure on soil biodiversity."

Life within the soil is vital for it to carry out normal functions, and scientists are only just beginning to appreciate the importance of soils. Worryingly, the areas identified to be at highest risk from biodiversity loss coincide with the Member States blocking more effective soil protection. In September, JRC found that, "Due the combined effect of high intensity agriculture, many invasive species and an increased risk of organic carbon loss, the potential pressures were found to be particularly high in the UK and central Europe." 

Nevertheless, landowners' lobby group the Country Land and Business Association triumphantly declared that scrapping the Soils Directive would "Save the UK £5billion implementation costs" on Wednesday.

CLA President Harry Cotterell said, "We believe the UK already has policies in place to deliver soil protection through cross-compliance, Environmental Stewardship and the Catchment Sensitive Farming initiative." He urged EU legislators to "Grasp chance to axe EU soil directive."

As soil takes thousands of years to form, and once degraded it is difficult and expensive to restore, it is regarded as being non-renewable by soil scientists. In the UK alone, the last major soil study, conducted in 2009, showed 2 million tonnes of topsoil is being eroded each year in the country.

Another major problem across Europe is soil sealing – the covering of land with an impermeable material. EU figures show that over 1,000 km² of land per year, or an area the size of Cyprus every ten years, is lost to soil sealing in the bloc. Given the threats facing Europe's soils and, as a result, the long term productivity of agricultural land many believe that effective soil protection is a matter of urgency.

Emma Hockridge head of policy at the Soil Association said the organic farming organisation was "disappointed" by the Commission's decision. She told Farming Online on Friday, "The health of our soil is too important to leave to chance and the directive would help co-ordinate action to protect and improve soils across the EU. Last year the European Commission published scientific and policy reports on the state of the EU's soils, which underline the need for action to prevent the on-going deterioration of Europe's soils."

Although she said the impasse reached within the EU necessitates "a rethink" of the Bloc's soil policy, Dr Helaina Black, senior soil scientist at the James Hutton Institute and UK representative on the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils, told Farming Online, "My concern is that, without some form of framework, our pressing needs for adequate soil information, monitoring and research to support our agri-businesses and other industries will remain the 'poor cousin' relative to the effort and investment put into other natural resources where there is much existing legislation and regulation e.g. water, air and biodiversity conservation."

She added, "Soils are essential to many of our basic needs such as food, water supply and climate regulation… Perhaps we need to identify better what we can gain from improving and restoring our soils through judicious management and investment. "

A number of other sensitive environmental measures, including the Natura 2000 network of protected wildlife habitats, will be assessed under the Commission's 'regulatory fitness check.' Environmental justice proposals, intended to ensure EU citizens have input in the environmental decisions made by their governments, are also under threat in what has been branded "dangerous environmental deregulation" by environmentalists.