Proposal for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience (Soil Monitoring Law)

ClientEarth analyzes the proposed EU Soil Monitoring Law (SML), arguing that while it fills a critical gap in environmental law, it requires stronger legally-binding targets, mandatory district management plans, and enhanced enforcement mechanisms to effectively achieve the goal of healthy soils by 2050.

• The European Union currently lacks a comprehensive legal instrument for soil protection, despite 60-70% of EU soils being classified as not healthy due to threats such as erosion, pollution, and loss of biodiversity.
• ClientEarth recommends maintaining Article 192(1) TFEU as the legal basis for the SML to ensure the European Parliament retains its role in the legislative process and to prevent the Council from deciding unanimously via the special procedure of Article 192(2).
• The proposed SML aims for healthy soils by 2050 but lacks legally-binding, time-bound intermediate targets; ClientEarth proposes a binding target of 100% healthy soils by 2050 with a clear trajectory to track Member State progress.
• ClientEarth argues for the introduction of mandatory 'soil district management plans' because the current proposal only requires Member States to 'take into account' existing plans from other legislation, which lack a direct focus on soil health.
• While the SML proposal includes provisions for access to justice and penalties, ClientEarth asserts these will only be operative if mandatory programmes of measures are included to provide clear, enforceable benchmarks for citizens and NGOs to challenge.

APA

Kolpak, G., Kearsey, E., & Lisi, G. (2023). Proposal for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience (Soil Monitoring Law). ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/media/taznj4v1/clientearth-analysis-and-recommendations-for-the-sml_nov-2023.pdf

Chicago

Kolpak, Gabriela, Emily Kearsey, and Gaia Lisi. Proposal for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience (Soil Monitoring Law). ClientEarth, 2023. https://www.clientearth.org/media/taznj4v1/clientearth-analysis-and-recommendations-for-the-sml_nov-2023.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Kolpak |first1=Gabriela |last2=Kearsey |first2=Emily |last3=Lisi |first3=Gaia |title=Proposal for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience (Soil Monitoring Law) |publisher=ClientEarth |date=November 2023 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/taznj4v1/clientearth-analysis-and-recommendations-for-the-sml_nov-2023.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{kolpak2023proposal, author = {Kolpak, Gabriela and Kearsey, Emily and Lisi, Gaia}, title = {{Proposal for a Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience (Soil Monitoring Law)}}, publisher = {ClientEarth}, year = {2023}, month = nov, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/taznj4v1/clientearth-analysis-and-recommendations-for-the-sml_nov-2023.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }