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Most viewed in Environment
The EU's soil protection directive has been stuck for many months. Drafted by the European Commission in 2006, the law aims to put in place EU-wide measures to protect the soil, such as restrictions on dangerous substances, requirements for national inventories of contaminated sites and action to prevent future degradation.
But a blocking group of countries, including France, Germany and the UK, stopped the proposal in its tracks. Commission officials were so dissatisfied with a watered-down version of the text drawn up by France (in the second half of 2008) that they considered withdrawing their proposal altogether. But France failed to get member states to agree on this weaker text and the draft law has made no progress since.
Now environmentalists' hopes are rising again. France has suggested it will drop its opposition, while Spain, which has just taken over the rotating presidency of the EU, is expected to give the matter higher priority.
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The European Union is facing a squeeze on the future supply of natural resources. At the same time, it is wasting the resources that it already has and letting its indigenous natural resources deteriorate.
The European Commission says it will soon have ways to measure the use of resources and set targets to reduce that use. Environmentalists, though, argue that targets are too weak.
What about the people whose land is mineral-rich?
Should waste be freely transported across the EU?
Slow to respond to the rapidly growing demand for rare raw materials, the European Union is now seeking to secure the supply of such commodities.
