The institutional framework for land and soil protection within the European Union (abbr. EU) is a complex structure involving both EU-level governance and the policies of individual Member States. At the EU level, the European Commission plays a central role in setting policy frameworks and coordinating actions on land and soil protection. This multi-layered framework aims to address soil degradation, contamination, and sustainable land use through the above analysed legislation, policy coordination, and monitoring. The EU’s approach emphasises integration across different sectors, yet the lack of a binding, specific soil protection directive limits the overall effectiveness of its efforts. While the EU sets the overarching policy direction, implementation is primarily the responsibility of Member States. The subsidiarity principle ensures that soil protection measures are tailored to the national and local context, but this leads to disparities in the level of soil protection across the EU. Some Member States, such as Germany and Austria, have comprehensive soil protection laws, while others, like Spain, rely more on general environmental laws.1 A further contrast is that many Southern and Eastern European countries struggle with effective soil governance due to weaker institutional frameworks, limited financial resources, and greater exposure to desertification and land degradation compared to Northern European counterparts.2