Soil Protection As Persistent Non-Decision or: Why Is There No European Soil Protection Policy?

EU environmental policy has expanded like no other area of social regulation since the 1970s. Today, the EU regulates various risks and protects the environmental media water, air, and biodiversity. However, an entire medium is largely excluded from legislation: Soil. Since soil erosion continues to outstrip soil formation across the EU, the European protection of the earth’s crust is by definition unsustainable. The social costs of this gap are estimated at some €38 billion each year. They include unsafe foodstuffs and drinking water (contamination), increased release of greenhouse gases from soil (decline of organic quality), infrastructure and property damage (erosion), and even loss of human life (floods and landslides). The paper examines the reasons for the stability of this non-decision. It argues that soil politics differ from environmental politics with regard to its actor constellation. First, unlike environmental product regulations, common soil regulations are not necessary to open the market for e.g. agricultural products. Preferences are therefore more heterogeneous than they often are in environmental policy. Since policy-change depends on a qualified majority of member-states, it is easily blocked by a minority. Second, soil protection touches on certain prerogatives of the German federal states, leading to an additional layer of conflict, now between conservative Länder governments and the German federal government. The need to accommodate Länder demands has transformed the German leadership role in soil protection to that of a laggard and led to the European Commission’s retraction of the soil framework directive.