The possibilities for the EU-wide use of similar ecological risk-based soil contamination assessment tools

Soil degradation, e.g. due to soil contamination, is a serious problem in Europe. Therefore, the European Commission believes that a comprehensive EU strategy for soil protection is required. With the purpose of supporting the European soil policy, the possibilities for a common approach in the EU-wide use of ecological risks assessment methodologies are explored. For over ten years now, ecological procedures used in different countries have been discussed in international fora. More recently, within the framework of the HERACLES network a review of ecological risk assessment tools was performed, among other things. From this study it can be concluded that the inclusion of ecological risk assessment in soil quality standards shows an increasing interest in many EU Member States. The study also shows that there are many procedures for ecological risk assessment readily available in several EU countries and will be readily available in even more Member States in the nearby future. Besides, this study clearly shows quite some variation in the ecological risk assessment tools and in the resulting soil quality standards in the different countries. Therefore, an effort was made to look for potential harmonisation of these tools within the European Union. Risk assessment tools used in soil quality assessment include both political and scientific elements, which are often interwoven. Insofar differences in the existing tools originate from geographical or cultural differences between Member States or from political choices, harmonisation is not at all regarded an option. Nevertheless, several differences between existing ecological risk assessment tools have been identified, that merely originate from scientific or technical aspects. These tools could be standardized, which means that there could be a uniform tool to be used everywhere throughout the EU. The development of these harmonised risk assessment tools will imply an intensive international cooperation, with the purpose of at least making the existing differences between those tools from the Member States transparent and to investigate the possibilities for coming to similar tools from a scientific/technical perspective.