Soil is one of Europe’s most important natural resources, underpinning food production, biodiversity, water quality and climate resilience.
Yet an estimated 60–70% of soils across the European Union are unhealthy, threatening the ecosystems and economic activities that depend on them. In response, the EU has established a long-term strategy to protect, monitor, and restore soils, aiming to achieve healthy soils across Europe by 2050.
The approach combines a dedicated soil strategy, new legislation, agricultural support, scientific research and initiatives to develop practical restoration techniques. Its focus extends beyond farmland to forests, urban areas and other landscapes, recognising that soil degradation is an environmental problem with consequences for public health, food security and the European economy.
A significant step came with the adoption of the Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive (EU) 2025/2360, commonly known as the Soil Monitoring Law. The legislation establishes a common framework for assessing soil health across member states and supporting measures to improve soil resilience. However, achieving healthy soils by 2050 remains an aspirational objective, not a legally binding requirement for every country to meet by the deadline.
Understanding how this strategy works, and what it is designed to achieve, starts with the soil beneath our feet.
What is soil health, and how is it measured?
Soil health describes the ability of soil to function as a living ecosystem, supporting plants, animals, and people while maintaining the natural processes the environment depends on.
Under the EU’s Soil Monitoring Law, healthy soils are those in good chemical, biological and physical condition, enabling them to provide essential ecosystem services. These include producing food, storing carbon, filtering water, cycling nutrients and providing habitats for biodiversity.
Soil is far more than a growing medium. It contains a complex community of bacteria, fungi, earthworms and other organisms that break down organic matter, release nutrients and help maintain its structure. Their activity affects how well soil absorbs water, supports roots, and sustains plant growth.
Assessing soil health therefore requires several indicators rather than a single measurement. Physical characteristics include soil structure, compaction and erosion. Chemical indicators include nutrient availability, acidity, salinity and contamination. Biological assessments consider soil biodiversity, organic matter and the activity of organisms living within it.
These characteristics are interconnected. Poor soil structure may struggle to absorb rainfall, increasing runoff and erosion. A loss of organic carbon can reduce the soil’s ability to retain water and nutrients, while contamination can undermine its capacity to support plants and protect human health.
No universal definition of healthy soil can be applied everywhere. Different soil types, climates and land uses have different characteristics and requirements. The EU’s monitoring framework must account for these differences while establishing a consistent basis for assessing conditions across member states.
The European Commission’s soil monitoring tools bring together indicators and maps to assess the extent of soil degradation. These help policymakers understand where action may be needed, although uncertainties in data and assessment thresholds mean that maps should not be treated as definitive diagnoses of individual sites.
This combination of biological complexity and local variation explains why improving soil health requires both better scientific understanding and measures adapted to conditions on the ground.
Why soil health matters for Europe’s future
The case for protecting soil spans agriculture, climate policy, water management, and biodiversity conservation. Its importance is reflected in the EU’s estimate that soil degradation costs the bloc around €50bn annually.
Food security and agricultural productivity
Healthy soil is fundamental to the long-term viability of European agriculture. The EU estimates that 95% of its food is produced directly or indirectly from soil, making this resource’s condition central to food security.
Soil degradation can reduce fertility, disrupt nutrient availability and damage the structure needed for healthy root development. These changes can affect crop yields, plant resistance to pests and diseases, and the nutritional quality and safety of food.
The consequences extend beyond individual farms. Lower productivity can increase pressure on agricultural land, affect farmers’ profitability and make food systems more vulnerable to environmental shocks.
Maintaining soil health is therefore not simply an environmental objective. It is also an investment in the productive capacity of Europe’s agricultural sector.
Climate change and water resilience
Soils play an important role in regulating the climate by storing organic carbon. When soils lose organic matter or are disturbed, some of that stored carbon can be released, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
Healthy soils also help Europe adapt to climate change. Their ability to absorb and retain water can reduce surface runoff, support crops during dry periods, and help limit drought effects. In contrast, compacted, eroded or sealed soils can increase flood risks and worsen water scarcity.
This makes soil management relevant to both climate mitigation and adaptation. Protecting carbon stocks while improving water retention can strengthen the resilience of agricultural land and natural ecosystems against extreme weather.
Peatlands are particularly important in this context because of their role in storing carbon. The EU’s Soil Strategy for 2030 identifies the restoration of managed and drained peatlands as one of its priorities.
Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems
Soil is itself a habitat, supporting an extensive network of organisms that contribute to nutrient cycling, decomposition, and ecosystem functioning.
When soil biodiversity declines, these processes can be disrupted. Erosion, pollution, compaction and the loss of organic matter can all undermine the conditions needed to sustain soil organisms.
The effects can spread above ground, influencing vegetation, wildlife habitats and the wider food web. Protecting soil health consequently supports the EU’s broader biodiversity objectives, including the ambition to restore degraded ecosystems.
Human health and the economy
Soil also helps protect drinking water by filtering substances as water moves through the ground. When contamination occurs, pollutants can threaten groundwater, ecosystems, and people through ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact.
At the same time, soil provides the physical foundation for buildings, roads and other infrastructure. The challenge is to accommodate these uses without unnecessarily sacrificing the ecological functions that make land valuable in the first place.
Soil formation is exceptionally slow. The Soil Monitoring Law notes that producing just one centimetre of topsoil can take hundreds of years, while degradation and complete soil loss can happen rapidly. Once fertile topsoil is removed or severely damaged, restoring its original properties can be extremely difficult.
These pressures help explain why the EU’s strategy combines prevention with restoration. Protecting existing healthy soils is essential, but so is improving land that has already deteriorated.
The EU Soil Strategy for 2030
The EU Soil Strategy for 2030, adopted by the European Commission in November 2021, provides the overarching policy framework for protecting and restoring Europe’s soils.
Its central ambition is to ensure that all EU soil ecosystems are healthy and more resilient by 2050, allowing them to continue delivering essential services. It also seeks to achieve no net land take, reduce soil pollution to levels no longer harmful to people and ecosystems, and establish common European standards for soil protection, sustainable management, and restoration.
The strategy recognises that soil degradation cannot be addressed through one intervention alone. It requires a combination of legislation, improved management practices, scientific monitoring, public awareness and financial support.
One priority is making sustainable soil management standard practice. The Commission has identified the need to encourage landowners and managers to adopt approaches that protect soil structure, retain organic matter and reduce erosion. It has also highlighted the potential of soil testing, practical guidance, and sharing successful techniques to help land managers make informed decisions.
Another priority is improving the management of land that has already been damaged. This includes restoring degraded soils, addressing contamination and tackling the loss of soil carbon.
The strategy also seeks to limit soil sealing, which occurs when natural soil surfaces are covered by impermeable materials such as concrete or asphalt. Commonly associated with buildings, roads and car parks, soil sealing can destroy fertile land, disrupt water infiltration and damage habitats.
The Commission has published guidance on limiting, mitigating or compensating for soil sealing. This reflects a wider policy challenge: accommodating development while protecting the natural functions of land.
Importantly, the strategy sets the direction of travel, but its objectives depend on implementation through a range of policy instruments. The Soil Monitoring Law provides a common legal framework for understanding soil conditions, while agricultural policies and research programmes are intended to help translate that knowledge into practical improvements.
The Soil Monitoring Law: A common framework for Europe
The adoption of Directive (EU) 2025/2360 represents a major development in EU soil policy.
The Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive entered into force on 16 December 2025, establishing the first dedicated EU-wide legislative framework for monitoring and assessing soil health. Member states must transpose its provisions into national law by 16 December 2028.
The legislation addresses a longstanding problem: without consistent information about soil conditions, it is difficult to assess the scale of degradation, compare trends between countries or determine whether restoration measures are working.
Under the directive, member states must establish soil districts and soil units to organise monitoring and assessment. These areas will account for factors such as soil type, land use and local environmental conditions.
The framework covers soils across different landscapes, including agricultural land, forests and urban areas. It addresses threats such as erosion, compaction, soil sealing, salinisation, loss of organic carbon, contamination, and declining soil biodiversity.
Monitoring first, with support for improvement
A defining feature of the directive is its emphasis on establishing a clearer picture of soil conditions before determining the measures needed to improve them.
Member states must monitor and assess soil health using the framework set out in the legislation. The resulting information should help identify degradation pressures, reveal changes over time and guide decisions about sustainable management.
The directive also provides for support to farmers, foresters, landowners and other soil managers. This can include advice on suitable management practices, training, research, awareness-raising and help accessing available funding.
Crucially, the law does not require every member state to achieve healthy soils by 2050, nor does it set binding intermediate targets for that outcome. Instead, it creates a monitoring framework, provides support to improve soil resilience, and sets requirements for addressing contaminated sites, while keeping 2050 as the long-term objective.
Tackling contaminated land
Contamination presents a particular challenge because pollutants can persist in soil and pose risks to people and ecosystems.
The directive requires member states to develop a risk-based system for identifying and investigating potentially contaminated sites, assessing the risks they present and taking measures to reduce unacceptable risks.
By 17 December 2029, countries must establish systems to identify and manage contaminated sites and create public online registers covering contaminated and potentially contaminated locations. The legislation also sets a deadline of 17 December 2035 for identifying potentially contaminated sites that existed before the directive entered into force.
These provisions are intended to improve transparency and provide a more systematic approach to land contamination across the EU.
The directive also provides a framework for gathering better information on contaminants for which monitoring data remain insufficient. Substances of concern include pesticides and their breakdown products, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), microplastics and nanoplastics.
The significance of these measures extends beyond environmental protection. Better identification and assessment of contamination can help authorities determine where intervention is necessary to protect human health, groundwater and surrounding ecosystems.
Research and innovation: A Soil Deal for Europe
Legislation and monitoring are only part of the EU’s approach. Research and innovation are also central to developing practical ways to restore soil health and make sustainable management more widely achievable.
The EU Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, funded through the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, aims to establish a network of 100 soil health living labs and lighthouses by 2030.
Living labs bring together researchers, farmers, land managers, businesses and other stakeholders to develop and test solutions in real-world conditions. Rather than relying exclusively on laboratory experiments, they let approaches be assessed against the practical challenges different landscapes and communities face.
Lighthouses, meanwhile, are sites used to demonstrate effective practices and showcase solutions that could be adopted more widely.
The mission also supports research into soil health, the development of harmonised monitoring methods and greater public awareness of the importance of soil protection.
This work matters because the most effective interventions will vary according to local conditions. Techniques suitable for agricultural land may differ from those needed in forests, urban environments or contaminated industrial sites. Testing approaches in real-world settings can help establish which methods work, where they are most effective and what is needed to implement them at scale.
The mission’s 2030 ambition complements the Soil Strategy’s longer-term objectives. While the strategy sets the direction for EU soil policy, the mission focuses on building the evidence, practical experience and innovation needed to accelerate the transition.
What will determine whether the strategy succeeds?
The EU has established a clearer policy framework for soil health, but its success will depend on how effectively the different measures are implemented.
A major challenge is the diversity of Europe’s soils and the pressures they face. Erosion, drought, contamination, and soil sealing require different responses, and the condition of agricultural, forest, and urban soils cannot be assessed through the same lens.
The Soil Monitoring Law provides a common framework, but national authorities must translate its requirements into effective monitoring systems and practical support. The quality of the data collected will also be important in identifying priorities and measuring progress.
Agricultural practices present another challenge. Improving soil health may require changes to land management, investment in equipment or adjustments to established production methods. Financial support, practical advice, and reliable evidence will help farmers and other land managers make those changes.
There is also a distinction between monitoring degradation and reversing it. Identifying unhealthy soils is an essential first step, but better data alone will not restore damaged ecosystems. Progress will ultimately depend on whether monitoring leads to appropriate action, whether that action is sustained and whether improvements can be demonstrated over time.
The directive’s first reporting deadline is 16 December 2031, when member states must report to the European Commission on implementation and soil health assessment. This will provide an important opportunity to evaluate how the framework is being put into practice.
The European Commission’s soil monitoring tools will also remain important in building the evidence base. Its Soil Health Dashboard provides an accessible way to explore indicators of degradation and compare patterns across countries and regions.
Taken together, these tools and reporting requirements should help establish a more consistent picture of soil health across Europe. However, meaningful progress will require the evidence to be translated into restoration and prevention measures on the ground.
Putting soil health at the centre of EU policy
The EU’s soil health strategy reflects a growing recognition that soil is a finite natural resource with direct consequences for food production, biodiversity, climate resilience and human wellbeing.
Through the Soil Strategy for 2030, the Soil Monitoring Law and the Horizon Europe Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, the EU is combining long-term objectives with legislation, monitoring, research and support for sustainable land management.
The new directive is an important step because it establishes common requirements for assessing soil conditions and addressing contamination. Yet it is not a guarantee that all European soils will be healthy by 2050. Achieving that ambition will require effective implementation, sustained investment and practical action tailored to local conditions.
The central challenge, therefore, is to turn a better understanding of soil degradation into measurable improvements. Protecting healthy soils, restoring damaged land and preventing further deterioration will be essential if Europe is to safeguard the natural systems on which its food supply, economy and environment depend.
Soil health may be less visible than many other environmental priorities, but its importance is difficult to overstate. The EU has established a framework for tackling the problem. The next test will be whether that framework delivers healthier, more resilient soils across Europe.
