Some information on the European and Ukrainian legislation. Land and soil monitoring.

On 10 April 2024, the European Parliament adopted in the first reading the European Commission’s proposal for the Soil Monitoring Law. This proposal was supported by 336 deputies, 242 were against, and 33 abstained.

The aim of the Law is to improve soil health care by 2050 in line with the EU’s zero-pollution ambitions, as well as to establish a comprehensive and coherent monitoring system to promote sustainable soil management and rehabilitation of contaminated sites.

The Law proposes a five-level classification for assessing soil condition (high condition, good condition, moderate condition, degraded and critically degraded soils). Soils with good or high ecological status are considered healthy.

It is estimated that around 60-70% of European soils are in an unhealthy state due to issues such as the expansion of human settlements, low land conversion rates, agricultural intensification and climate change.

EU countries must also investigate, assess and clean up contaminated sites to eliminate unacceptable risks to human health and the environment from soil contamination. The costs should be paid by polluters in accordance with the polluter pays principle.

On 11 April 2024, the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Health and Food Safety voted in favour of amendments to the Soil Monitoring Law, which removed mineral deposits from the definition of soil.

However, some EU member states have amended the compromise text, which defines mining as a soil-destroying activity. What will be the final version of this issue?

In the future, this Law will be considered by the new European Parliament, which was elected on 6-9 June 2024.

At the same time, Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Land Protection’ provides the basic concepts and terms, according to which

soil is a natural and historical organo-mineral body formed on the surface of the earth’s crust and is the centre of the highest concentration of nutrients, the basis of life and development of mankind due to its most valuable property – fertility;

land – the surface of the land with soils, minerals and other natural elements that are organically combined and function together with it.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted Resolution No. 848 dated 23 July 2024 approving the Procedure for Monitoring Land and Soil, which comes into force simultaneously with Law of Ukraine No. 2973-IX dated 20 March 2023 ‘On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on the State System of Environmental Monitoring, Information on the State of the Environment (Environmental Information) and Information Support for Environmental Management’.