On July 15, 2006 13 countries (Belgium, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Greece, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estland, Italy, Cyprus, Poland, Luxemburg     
and Portugal) sent a letter to EU commissioner Stavros Dimas, in which they ask the EU to speed up the process for the Soil Thematic Strategy.     
They also ask for a legally binding instrument on Soil Protection.    
Because of the latter, the Netherlands (and possible some other countries as well) didn´t sign the letter as they have a good legal Soil Protection     
system in place. Other countries consider a European Soil Policy with legal instruments as a step forward. There is no official EU reaction yet to this     
letter    
A copy of the letter, signed by the 13 countries, can be downloaded via     
http://www.bodem-europa.nl/files/Lette ...     
   
   
News received via NICOLE: Network for Industrially Contaminated Land in Europe:   
http://www.nicole.org