The 7th Meeting of the EU Expert Group on Soil Protection
The 7th meeting of the EU expert group on soil protection took place on 22 October 2018 in Brussels. The meeting was aimed to discuss the possibility of new legal provisions on soil protection (link). During the meeting the EC presented the results of the questionnaire sent to the Member States on: a) need for a new policy in the EU; b) common objectives to be achieved for soil protection.
Moreover, the EC presented in advance: new provisions on Common Agricultural Policy after 2020 in which the financial instruments will be strictly related to environmental objectives; new financial instruments for research in agriculture; implementation of policies on biodiversity with particular focus on soil; analysis of the use of cohesion funds for soil decontamination and, in general, for forestry soil protection.
Currently the soil protection is governed at EU level by the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection (link) but the EC means to propose a new policy instrument in the next future.
The relevant documents presented during the meeting are available here
