‘Terrible’ EU soil directive must be left buried
Posted, February 04, 2010 @ 00:00
The Spanish Presidency of the EU must not dig up previously buried proposals to regulate soil, Richard Ashworth MEP, Conservative agriculture spokesman in the European Parliament, warned after the Presidency held a working group to discuss the proposals.
The soil directive was blocked last year by a small alliance of countries, including the UK. However, the text that the Spanish Presidency has begun discussing dates back to 2007, rather than the modified text debated under the Czech Presidency a year ago.
The directive, it is claimed, will encourage the prevention of pollution, tackle degradation and protect soil functions. However, Mr Ashworth believes that soil is already heavily regulated by such legislation as the nitrates and ground water directives as well as by existing cross compliance regulations. The directive is also overly prescriptive, trying to set out a harmonised approach to protecting soil, without taking into account of diverse soil across the EU.
Mr Ashworth said:
“This is a terrible piece of legislation. Soil is already covered by a number of directives and aspects of the Common Agricultural Policy. This directive is just another layer of bureaucracy.
“Soil in Finland is very different from soil in Greece, yet these proposals would apply the same rules on all soil with scant consideration for diverse climatic conditions.
“We thought we had finally killed off this directive but now that the Spanish are trying to revive it, we need the British government to dig in.
“Spain has a clear interest in soil quality given its problem of desertification. However, British farmers take great pride in their soil and will only be burdened with extra costs and red tape by this directive.”
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