Letter to EU Commission: Horizon Europe mission on soil health and food must start immediately to reach 2030 targets

Brussels, 28 June 2021 – The Commission is today (Monday) discussing the design and approval of the Horizon Europe mission for soil health and food, which is at risk of not being funded or underfunded for the 2021-2022 work programme. With their letter, MEPs Ripa, Arena and Hojsik remind the Commission of the urgency of the situation and call on the Commission not to postpone this mission any further.

We strongly support the aim of this Horizon Europe Mission […]. To achieve the goal of bringing our soils to a healthy state by 2030, there is no more time to lose.

In this context, MEPs Manuela Ripa, Maria Arena and Martin Hojsik have written a letter to Vice-President of the Commission Frans Timmermans, Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius and Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski to remind the Commission of the importance of the Horzion Europe Mission for soil health and food.

“We strongly support the aim of this Horizon Europe Mission,” highlights Manuela Ripa, MEP of the ÖDP. “The missions are a central part of the Horizon Europe programme and include concrete actions – via research projects to legislative projects – to address the biggest challenges of our time. Given the rapid advance of climate change and the loss of our biodiversity, the mission for soil health and food should be very high on the Commission’s list. To achieve the goal of bringing our soils to a healthy state by 2030, there is no more time to lose.”

Around 70% of European soils are in poor condition, which has cross-border implications for the European Green Deal targets. Soils are central to maintaining our ecosystems, producing our food and stabilising our climate. Against this background, at the end of April, the EU Parliament had adopted a motion for a resolution for an EU-wide uniform protection of soils, calling on the EU Commission to take concrete legislative measures to restore and maintain healthy soils.