#eu directive

A thermometer does not cure a fever

The EU Directive on Soil Monitoring and Resilience was approved on 23 October 2025

Europe has just delivered another masterclass in ambition without enforcement. The freshly approved Soil Monitoring & Resilience directive (SML) is a handsome edifice of dashboards and definitions—an Excel-powered ode to watching decline happen. We will calibrate probes, harmonize indicators, archive samples every six years, and classify soils into neat health boxes while the bulldozers check their mirrors and carry on. If you were hoping for rules that actually change outcomes on the ground, you’ll love the SML’s central promise: we’ll measure the problem better.

Contrast that with the 2006 Soil Framework Directive that never made it. That draft had muscle. It required Member States to identify risk areas—erosion, organic matter decline, compaction, salinization, landslides—and to adopt time-bound, resourced programs of measures. It mandated inventories of contaminated sites, national remediation strategies under the polluter-pays principle, and a soil status report for property transactions where risky activities occurred. It even pushed back on land take by privileging brownfield reuse over fresh sealing. Imperfect? Sure. But it turned diagnosis into action.

The SML turns action back into diagnosis. We get an EU monitoring frame, common indicators, and soil health classes—but the 2050 “healthy soils” horizon is non-binding, and the thresholds that might trigger responses are mostly national and discretionary. Emerging pollutants (PFAS, pesticides, microplastics) finally make the list—progress on paper—yet remediation duties remain hedged in risk management jargon. Land take? “Principles” to consider avoiding, reducing, compensating sealing or topsoil removal—carefully worded so as not to interfere with permits. And the strongest 2023 ideas were politely escorted out: no soil health certificate in transactions, no mandatory sustainable soil practices—just encouragement and advice.

What opportunities did we throw away? Automatic restoration obligations when monitoring shows “poor health.” Transactional transparency that would have accelerated the clean-up of contaminated sites. A common floor for sustainable soil management to prevent a race to the bottom. A credible brake on urban sprawl and its health toll—heat islands, dirtier air and water—replaced by voluntary nods. Instead of a levee, we built a ruler. Europe will now know precisely how fast it is losing soil, perhaps to two decimal places. What a comfort for eroding hillsides and subsiding foundations.

A thermometer does not cure a fever; a monitoring network does not protect a hectare. By choosing metrics over mandates, the EU has handed a quiet victory to those who treat soil as a consumable—agro-industrial lobbies and the cement crowd. Monitoring is a tiny step; without binding duties to protect and restore, it’s worth little—very little.

The 2006 directive stalled because, in particular, two countries with particularly polluted soils (by themselves) would have had to take action to manage soil pollution. And bear the associated costs. However, it was a valid tool. This is a 'thermometer' seen as a polyvalent vaccine.

Calls to Abandon Daylight Saving Time Grow Among European Lawmakers This weekend, as the clocks across Europe fall back an hour, a coalition of 67 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) is advocating for the abolition of this longstanding practice. Lawmakers are expressing serious concerns about the “outdated” effects of clock changes on sleep patterns, traffic safety, and even heart attack…

The Slovak transmission system operator Eustream and the gas storage operator Nafta support EU hydrogen initiatives and are developing projects but warn that the lack of guaranteed hydrogen production or consumption makes it difficult to secure a return on investment. The new EU directive and regulation on renewable gas and natural gas aim to facilitate their integration into the energy system, and implementation is expected by 2026. In drawing up rules for the emerging hydrogen market, the Commission has used the existing rules for natural gas as a model, but experts have warned that, unlike the hydrogen market, the natural gas market is fully developed. "We don't even have hydrogen storage facilities capable of injecting or extracting hydrogen, nor do we have the infrastructure for transport or production,” said Nafta’s Anna Slavkovská at the Slovak Gas and Oil Association conference. She added that it is "premature" at this stage to impose rules as strict as those on the gas market. The directive also requires EU member states to plan and develop hydrogen infrastructure. But Sylvi  Angyalová of Eustream likened the challenge to electric mobility: people are not buying electric cars because there are few charging points, but the charging infrastructure is not being expanded because there are few cars, she said. "It is one thing if we manage to build a hydrogen pipeline through Slovakia, it is another thing if in 2030 the market will be ready enough,” Angyalová explained. "We will not rebuild the grid without guaranteed production and consumption. But we will do everything possible to be ready for hydrogen by 2030," she added.

The European Union has reached an agreement on the long-awaited directive to combat violence against women. The directive is the first of its kind and instructs member states to introduce legislation to combat acts such as female genital mutilation, forced marriage, the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, and much more. The legislation has been the main priority for Fine Gael MEP Frances Fitzgerald, who was one of the lead negotiators of the law. Fitzgerald welcomed the agreement today but expressed disappointment that the EU was unable to agree upon on a union-wide definition of rape. The EU directive to combat violence against women is the first piece of EU legislation to focus on the protection, prevention, and prosecution of domestic violence and violence against women in Europe. [...] ‘Unfinished business’ A debate among member states flared up throughout the negotiations of the directive as it aimed to introduce a union-wide definition of rape, legally-based on consent. While the Commission and Parliament came to agreements on the matters, the European Council fell short. These definitions have been left out of the legislation announced today.

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"Current lockdown measures have exacerbated the pre-existing problems by enabling an environment for coercive control. Cases of gender-based physical, psychological and sexual violence have increased across Europe under COVID19, in what the United Nations has called a “shadow pandemic”."

"Update (September 2021): After thousands of us pushed for a directive to address and end gender-based violence, the European Parliament has voted to make gender-based violence an EU crime and called for the Commission to put forward such a directive. Commission President von der Leyen promised it by the end of the year. But they need to know a robust directive must be a priority! Add your name."

‘State pension age changes have been soul-destroying – we’re gobsmacked by the High Court ruling’ | inews

Women affected by the state pension age increases have expressed disappointment after the High Court dismissed their claims that the changes were discriminatory. 

Among them is 61-year-old Sandra Morris, who will not get her state pension until she is 66. Despite having chronic illnesses, she will continue to run her miniature artisan business until retirement age as, without her state…

New anti-terrorism powers passed by European Parliament

The European Parliament voted on Thursday 15 February to approve the controversial new Directive on combating terrorism, as well as amendments to the Schengen Borders Code that will mean all EU citizens now have to be checked against the Schengen Information System, Interpol’s Lost and Stolen Travel Documents database, and “other relevant databases” whenever they enter or exit the Schengen area.

Almost 1,200 tonnes of electrical waste collected in Wicklow

WEEE Ireland have announced their milestone table topping figures for electric and battery recycling in 2015. The figures revealed that in the last year alone WEEE Ireland has collected almost 1,200 tonnes of electronic waste in Wicklow. This equates to an impressive 8kgs per person in Wicklow, over double the original EU target of 4kg per head. Over 12 tonnes of electrical waste came from WEEE…