Blog by Ellen Fay, co-founder and co-Executive Director,
Attending the presentation by Dr. Nils Broothaerts and Dr. Panos Panagos from the European Commission gave us a clear and, at times, sobering overview of how central soil health has become to the European Union鈥檚 environmental, economic and climate agenda. What stood out immediately was how deliberately the presentation connected policy, science and on-the-ground action, framing soil not as a niche environmental issue, but as a foundation for many of the EU鈥檚 long-term goals.
One of the most striking takeaways was the sheer scale of soil degradation across Europe. The presentation highlighted evidence showing that more than 60% of EU soils are degraded, with the figure rising to around 90% for agricultural soils. Hearing this alongside the estimated annual cost of 鈧41鈥73 billion made the issue feel both urgent and tangible. Soil degradation was not presented as a single problem, but as the cumulative result of multiple processes- erosion by water and wind, tillage, harvesting and gullying – often acting together and compounding their impacts.
The presentation helped us understand how the EU is responding through a coherent policy framework. Central to this is the EU Soil Strategy for 2030, which sets the long-term ambition of achieving healthy soils across the EU by 2050. A major moment discussed by Panos was the approval of the Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive, described as the first-ever EU-wide legislation dedicated specifically to soils. Its introduction of a harmonised definition of soil health and a coordinated monitoring framework across Member States felt like a turning point, signalling that soils are finally being treated with the same seriousness as air and water.
What we found particularly important was how Mission Soil was presented as a practical engine for change. With hundreds of millions of euros invested between 2021 and 2025 and dozens of projects already funded, the scale of commitment was clear. The concept of Living Labs was especially compelling – real-world sites where farmers, researchers, public bodies and citizens work together to test and co-create solutions. Learning that 45 Living Labs are already operating across more than 500 sites helped ground the policy discussion in concrete action.
It was also made clear how essential monitoring and data are to making all of this work. The role of the EU Soil Observatory emerged as a backbone of the entire system, providing consistent EU-wide data, long-term surveys such as LUCAS, and tools like the Soil Degradation Dashboard and the EU Soil Health Portal. It became evident that without this shared evidence base, neither legislation nor innovation could be effectively targeted or evaluated.
Another important insight was how soil policy is increasingly interconnected with other EU priorities. The presentation linked soil health to agriculture, biodiversity, climate mitigation, carbon farming, pollution reduction and the Sustainable Development Goals. Research findings on soil organic carbon, in particular, highlighted both the risks of continued degradation and the opportunities soils still offer for carbon storage and climate action.
Overall, the presentation delivered the conference with a strong sense that soil is no longer the 鈥渋nvisible鈥 resource it once was in policy debates. The message we took away from Nils and Panos was that restoring and protecting soils requires coordinated legislation, harmonised monitoring, sustained research investment and active participation from land managers and citizens alike. Mission Soil was presented not simply as a policy initiative, but as a collective effort to safeguard a resource that underpins food systems, ecosystems, climate resilience and long-term economic stability across Europe.
Further context can be found in the following publications in the European Journal of Soil Science 听补苍诲听.
