Building Healthy Soils Into Europe’s Next Budget
As the negotiations over the EU’s next budget (28-34) intensify, soil health advocates may have a rare political opening. These debates are characterized by an increased attention on defense and competition, yet they also shape Europe’s ability to respond to climate change, urbanisation, environmental and human health, all of which are closely related to soil health. Cohesion policy (regional development and agriculture) is the EU’s main investment policy shaping European landscapes (read more). How do advocates secure Europe’s transition towards healthy soils?
EU Soil Policy Evolves, but Implementation Gaps Remain
Until recently, EU soil policy was fragmented across multiple sectoral frameworks, such as agriculture, environment, and energy, with different legal obligations. However, recent binding policies, such as the EU Soil Monitoring Directive make soil monitoring mandatory, and the EU Nature Restoration Regulation has binding restoration targets.
However, as the SPADES Diagnosis phase found, soil policies impact member states differently. The integration of soils into planning differs due to national implementation. While in the long term EU strives for territorial cohesion, the competences on land use remain with the member states. The member states remain sceptical to expand the competencies of the EU on spatial planning. A large share of the EU budget goes to regional development. Although the land use decisions remain national, this funding can indirectly influence spatial planning by supporting specific local and regional projects.
What does SPADES advocate for?
Two priorities stand out for SPADES: explicitly integrating soil health into EU funding rules, and ensuring that national implementation and spending plans support soil health goals. In a recent session for the SPADES pilots, Yoann Clouet highlighted that broad environmental goals can also cover soil health, creating opportunities to support related actions through EU funding. Lisa Marquard added that there are opportunities such as the EU's taxonomy, where bringing soil into the picture could strengthen nature protection more broadly.
Until the adoption of the budget, lobbying in Brussels will be intense. But the opportunity to influence soil outcomes does not end there. A second important phase begins when Member States design their national spending plans for agriculture and regional development. These plans still need approval from the European Commission during the implementation of the 2028–2034 budget period.
SPADES at EURESFO
Beyond advocacy work in Brussels, SPADES is also present at the European Urban Resilience Forum (EURESFO) in Guimarães from 17 - 19 June.
A session on “Navigating (non-)binding policies across governance levels: the nitty-gritty for local and regional authorities” unpacks how key EU policies, such as the Nature Restoration Regulation, the EU Biodiversity Strategy, Soil Monitoring Law and emerging climate frameworks translate into practice. Which elements are legally binding, how responsibilities are shared across governance levels, and what this means in practice for cities and regions implementing EU environmental objectives.
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