Soil Monitoring Law
The EU Soil Strategy for 2030, published on 17 November 2021, sets out the goal of ensuring that all EU soil ecosystems are healthy and more resilient by 2050. As a key deliverable of the Strategy, on 5 July 2023, the European Commission proposed the Soil Monitoring Law, designed to create a level playing field across Member States and to guarantee a high level of environmental and health protection.
The resulting Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience, agreed during Trilogue negotiations in April 2025, introduces a more coherent and harmonised EU framework for soil health monitoring and assessment. With support from the Commission, Member States will be required to monitor and evaluate soil health across their territories using common soil descriptors, linked to non-binding EU-level target values and national trigger values, and a shared EU methodology.
Recognising the importance of flexibility, the Directive allows Member States to prioritise the management of contaminated sites based on risk, cost-effectiveness, and local conditions. Accordingly, they will apply a risk-based, stepwise approach to identify, investigate, and manage potentially contaminated sites.
Since the launch of the EU Soil Strategy, FuelsEurope has actively engaged with the European Commission and co-legislators to emphasise key principles that should be embedded in the new Directive:
- Risk-based framework: Actions should be taken only where there are genuine risks to health and/or the environment. For permitted installations, existing provisions under the Industrial Emissions Directive already ensure a high level of environmental protection.
- Proportionality: Remediation measures should be proportionate to the identified risks to human health and/or the environment. Remediation should not be mandated where no unacceptable risk exists.
- Effectiveness and flexibility: EU-level provisions should recognise the diversity of soil characteristics and typologies across Member States, allowing them the flexibility to prioritise actions in line with local conditions and needs.
- Avoid overregulation: The new Directive should remain consistent and coherent with existing EU legislation, such as the Industrial Emissions Directive, to prevent regulatory overlap and unnecessary administrative burden.
FuelsEurope will continue to engage in the development of secondary legislation arising from the adopted Directive, with the objective of ensuring that the competitiveness of the fuels manufacturing sector is preserved.