The Global Symposium on Soil Pollution #GSOP18 | 2 - 4 May 2018 | FAO Hq Ms. Ana Payá Pérez, JRC, European Commission, Italy

2. Regional status of soil pollution:
Europe
M. Van Liedekerke, J. Masson, A. Paya Perez, A. Jones, V.
Geissen, R. Baritz, E. Havlicek, V. Silva, X. Yang
Disclaimer: Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on its behalf may be held
responsible for the use to which information contained in this presentation may be put, nor for any
errors which may appear despite careful preparation and checking. The presentation does not
necessarily reflect the view of the position of the European Union.

3. Assessments of soil pollution in Europe
 EU Soil Thematic Strategy (2006)
 Soil threats
 monitoring through indicators
 Socio-economic aspects
 State of the Environment Report
(SOER 2010, 2015, 2020)
 State and Trends in soil
pollution

4. How Europe addresses soil pollution?
Legal frameworks
 The Soil Thematic Strategy (2006) is
still alive
 Resource Efficiency Roadmap « by
2020 EU policies take into account their
direct and indirect impact on land use in
the EU and globally… »
 The Commission is further developing the
scientific knowledge-base (…) leading to
a Communication on land use.
 7th EAP provisions on land and soil
protection (2014-2020)
 Rio+20 Outcome Document 'The
Future We Want' (2013) EU will
strive to achieve a land degradation
neutral world in the context of
sustainable development.

5. How EU adresses soil pollution?
Water Framework
Directive
Groundwater
Directive
Environmental
Liability Directive
Landfill
Directive
Strategy Urban
Environments
IPPC/IED
Directives
REACH
Waste Framework
Directive
INSPIRE
Strategy on waste
prevention and
recycling
EU laws do not
address all the
soil threats in a
comprehensive
way and not all
Member States
have specific
legislation on
soil protection.
European Soil
Related
Legislation

6. Legal framework on soil pollution
Collaborative web
platform “Soil
Wiki”: provides an
inventory of soil-
relevant policies in
the 28 EU Member
States and its
Regions
https://webgate.ec.europ
a.eu/fpfis/wikis/display/S
OIL/Home

8. Legal framework. European level
Does not provide
mandatory requirements
to address soil pollution.
Little information related
to types of pollutants or
threshold values is
present in the soil related
EU legislation (25%);
mainly related to water
bodies
Mercury
Regulation
Groundwater
Directive
National
Emission
Ceiling
Directive
Basis for the
inventory of
contaminated
sites

9. EU Legal vacuum is evidenced by
the presence of more than 200
national and regional legal tools
that address soil pollution.
National implementation of EU
directives  significant
differences between Member
States.
24% of the countries address soil
pollution through the
implementation of the Water
Framework and Landfill
Directives
Up to 40 national legal tools are
adopting the Thematic Strategy
for Soil Protection goals.
Legal framework. National level
Source: information provided in the Soil-Wiki
platform

10. Lithuania:
concentration in
the target area
before the start
of planned
activities
Belgium: Values
above ambient
concentrations
of a pollutant in
the soil
Background
concentration
Belgium:
applies to all
activities,
economic or
not, except
housing
Slovakia:
abandoned
industrial sites,
where
contamination
of groundwater
and soil is
usually present.
Brownfields
Latvia:
utilisation of
soil,
subterranean
depths, water,
air,
installations or
buildings and
other
stationary
facilities that
may result in
environmental
pollution or
risk of
accidents
Polluting
activities
Slovakia,
Lithuania,
Luxembourg
and Serbia:
human activities
as the trigger
Germany: any
impairment of
soil functions
Soil pollution
Belgium, Croatia,
Serbia, Slovakia,
Sweden and
Switzerland: where
confirmed presence
of hazardous and
substances caused
by human activity
in concentrations
that may cause a
significant risk to
human health and
the environment
Soil
contamination
Differences in concepts and definitions
concentration
of substances
in the soil
under natural
conditions or
conditions
with very
little human
influence.
as a property,
which
expansion,
redevelopment,
or reuse may be
complicated by
the presence or
potential
presence of a
hazardous
substance.
included
those
installations
covered by
the IPPC or
the Seveso II
Directives.
the
presence of
a chemical
or
substance
that has
adverse
effects.
Soil
contamination is
not necessarily
causing harm

11. Networking and knowledge sharing
SOIL AND HEALTH
• HERACLES – Human and ecological risk assessment
for contaminated land (2004-2007)
• COST Action – Industrial Contaminated Sites and
Health
EIONET NRC Soil (39 European Countries represented)
• Indicator "Progress in the management of
contaminated sites in Europe" (2014, 2018)
• Best practices- remediated sites and brownfields
success stories in Europe (2016, 2017)
• Emerging pollutants

12. MONITORING DIFFUSE SOIL
POLLUTION
LUCAS SOIL – land use/land
cover changes in Europe
• Phys-chem, SOC, Heavy
metals, pesticides,
biodiversity
SUBSTANCES OF CONCERN
• Pesticides risk (EUROSTAT
2017), Soil ecological risk
(HAIR and FOOTPRINT)
• Phosphorous and Nitrogen
Indicators (EUROSTAT,
EEA)
• Emerging pollutants
Copper distribution in European topsoils: An assessment based on LUCAS
soil survey. C. Ballabio et al Science of The Total Environment, Volume 636, 2018,
282–298 (2018)

13. Challenges
• Variability in legislative frameworks across
countries,
• variability terminology
• inventory vs register,
• contamination vs pollution
• methodology (e.g. prioritisation, liability,…).
• budget