Dear members of the EP on Soil and Soil Solution,

On the 28^th Task Force meeting in Poland last week, the issue was raised that only few countries that took part in the BioSoil survey (2006 - 2009) already requested the ‘central lab BioSoil’ soil results from the EU Joint Research Centre (JRC).

Please recall that during BioSoil most countries submitted (i) a 10% subset of their soil samples and (ii) historical soil samples from a previous level I soil survey to the INRA central laboratory.   As agreed in that programme,  each country could freely ask for a copy of these results by contacting Mr Roland Hiederer (roland.hiederer@jrc.ec.europa.eu) and (in cc:) Mr Luca Montanarella (luca.montanarella@jrc.ec.europa.eu).

This request was successfully performed by some countries (e.g. Ireland), for use in their national soil reporting. 

Indeed, these valuable soil data may be used for comparison with the own national BioSoil results. Hence, national laboratory proficiency may be evaluated for the 10% duplicate samples and the historical samples may reveal temporal changes based on the standard analysis methods.

The FSCC strongly recommends the BioSoil responsible /NFC of each country to request for this information. It is also greatly appreciated if a copy of the received data is forwarded to the FSCC (fscc@inbo.be), so that this information may be used for discussions in the next Soil Expert Panel meeting, most probably in Slovenia (March 2013).

We thank you for your cooperation.

Best Wishes,

Bruno De Vos (Chair FSEP)                                                                 Nathalie Cools (FSCC)