LUXEMBOURG Trends and Developments Contributed by: Nathalie Prüm-Carré, Inès Goeminne and Georges Gratia, Elvinger Hoss Prussen
Scope and themes The directive lays down a framework for and meas- ures on: • monitoring and assessment of soil health; • soil resilience; and • management of contaminated sites. It also provides for a stepwise approach to land take, with a view to assessing the various processes of land take, and aiming to reduce and mitigate their impact on soil health and ecosystem services. Obligations of member states Member states will be required to: • establish a soil monitoring framework at a level that is appropriate to the soil descriptors and soil seal- ing and soil removal indicators to ensure regular, coherent and accurate monitoring of soil health and of soil sealing and soil removal; • assess the soil health in all their soil districts and associated soil units based on the data collected in the context of the soil monitoring referred to; • ensure that risks to human health and the environ - ment of potentially contaminated sites and con- taminated sites are identified, managed and kept at acceptable levels, taking account of the envi- ronmental, social and economic impact of the soil contamination and of the risk reduction measures; and • systematically identify potentially contaminated sites on their territory. For the purposes of the identification of potentially contaminated sites, member states shall establish a list of potentially contaminating activities. Implementation into national law Once the directive has been fully adopted and entered into force, Luxembourg will have to implement it into
Directive 98/70/EC with regard to the promotion of energy from renewable sources. In this context, the bill provides for the prioritisation of renewable energy production facilities and sets deadlines for the various stages of the examination process. It provides a framework for the procedure for examining authorisation applications and sets specific deadlines. It also introduces shorter deadlines for pro- jects involving renewable energy production facilities. Soil Monitoring and Resilience European context On 5 July 2023, the European Commission adopt- ed a proposal for a directive on soil monitoring and resilience. This directive is a key element of the Euro- pean Green Deal (Commission Communication of 11 December 2019), the Soil Strategy, the Biodiversity Strategy and the Zero Pollution Action Plan. On 29 September 2025, the Council adopted the directive on soil monitoring. This is a draft that has not been definitively adopted and is subject to change before it enters into force. It establishes the Europe- an framework for soil assessment and monitoring, with the overall objective of achieving healthy soils throughout Europe by 2050. Main objectives The objectives of this directive are to: • establish a solid and coherent soil monitoring framework for all soils across the EU; • reduce soil contamination to levels no longer con- sidered harmful to human health and the environ - ment; • continuously improve soil health in the EU; • maintain soils in a healthy condition and to prevent and address all aspects of soil degradation, with a view to achieving healthy soils by 2050 that can provide multiple ecosystem services on a scale sufficient to meet environmental, societal and eco- nomic needs; and • prevent and mitigate the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss, and to increase resilience against natural disasters and in terms of food security.
national law by means of legislation. Carbon Dioxide Capture and Disposal Existing legal framework
The Law of 27 August 2012 establishes a legal frame- work for the environmentally safe geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in order to contribute to the fight against climate change. The objective of geologi-
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