| Title: |
Consultation on the proposed EU Soil Framework Directive and initial Regulatory Impact Assessment
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| Resource Type: |
document --> policy documents
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| Country: |
United Kingdom
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| Year: |
2007 |
| Availability: |
July 2007
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| Author 1/Producer: |
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Defra
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| Author / Producer Type: |
Agency, regulator or other governmental or inter-governmental body
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| Publisher: |
Defra
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| Publisher City: |
Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR
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| Format (e.g. PDF): |
PDF
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EUGRIS Keyword(s): |
Contaminated land-->policy and regulatory
Contaminated land-->stats, registers, inventories etc
Soil-->Soil Overview
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| Short description: |
After much further preparatory work and a Europe-wide consultation with a range of
expert and stakeholder interests, the Commission finally adopted such a Strategy in
September 2006, accompanied by proposal for a new EU Soil Framework Directive.
In summary, the Strategy concludes that soil is being degraded by a host of human
activities, such as urban development, inappropriate agricultural and forestry practices,
industrial activities, and tourism. The proposed Soil Framework Directive accordingly
seeks to ensure the protection and sustainable use of soil based on preventing further
soil degradation and preserving its functions, and restoring degraded soils.
The main elements of the proposed Directive focus on requiring Member States to:
• assess the impacts of policies likely to exacerbate or reduce soil degradation
processes during the development of these policies;
• take precautionary measures to protect soil functions;
• take appropriate measures to limit sealing - the permanent covering of the soil
surface with an impermeable material;
• identify risk areas with regard to soil erosion, loss of soil organic matter, compaction,
salinisation and landslides and draw up a programme of measures to address these
risks;
• take appropriate action to prevent soil contamination; establish a national inventory
of contaminated sites; and remediate all contaminated sites using mechanisms to
fund remediation;
• raise awareness of the importance of soils.
The regulatory impact assessment raises concern in relation to specific provisions of this
Directive - in particular the high costs to government and stakeholders of the
contamination and soil sealing provisions. The contamination provisions are
very prescriptive in nature and the soil sealing provisions have far-reaching
implications for the planning system. Considering the existence of EC legislation already that addresses
most of these risks, there is also an issue as to whether new legislation will
cause confusion and uncertainty with few additional benefits to the
environment.
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| Long description: |
Extract ' Many of these issues are already the subject of existing UK (and in some cases EU)
legislation and it is this context that we present this consultation paper. We are keen to
learn from policy managers, operational bodies (including local authorities) land
managers and users about how they see the proposals in the Directive meeting the
needs of soil protection in the UK. It is also important to find out your views on the costs
and benefits of the measures if the Directive were adopted and implemented. We would
also like your suggestions as to how the measures could be improved, for example, to
ensure they focus on real risks and that they require policy measures proportionate to
those risks. This information will be valuable input to our negotiations on the proposed
Directive.'
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Submitted By:
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Professor Paul Bardos WhoDoesWhat?
Last update: 21/08/2007
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