Article 6 — Monitoring framework for soil health and for soil sealing and soil removal

1. Member States shall establish a monitoring framework (soil monitoring framework) at a level which is appropriate to the soil descriptors and soil sealing and soil removal indicators to ensure that regular, coherent and accurate monitoring of soil health and of soil sealing and soil removal is carried out in accordance with this Article and with Annexes I and II. The soil monitoring framework shall build on existing monitoring frameworks at national level and Union level including, where appropriate, data from the land use/cover area frame statistical survey (LUCAS). If necessary, Member States may adapt their soil monitoring framework for their outermost regions in order to take into account the specific characteristics of those regions. 2. Member States shall monitor soil health in each soil unit and soil sealing and soil removal in each soil district. 3. The monitoring framework shall be based on the following: (a) the soil descriptors and criteria for healthy soil condition referred to in Article 7; (b) the sampling points to be determined in accordance with Article 9(1); (c) the soil measurements to be carried out by Member States and, if applicable, by the Commission in accordance with Article 9(3) and (4); (d) scientifically robust remote-sensing data and products as referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article, if any; (e) the soil sealing and soil removal indicators referred to in Article 7(1), second subparagraph. 4. The Commission and the European Environment Agency (EEA) shall leverage existing space-based data and products delivered under the Copernicus component of the Union Space Programme, established by Regulation (EU) 2021/696, to explore possibilities with regard to, and develop, in cooperation with Member States, soil remote-sensing products, to provide the Member States with the necessary data on soil sealing and soil removal indicators and to support the Member States in monitoring the relevant soil descriptors. 5. By 17 December 2027, the Commission and the EEA shall, on the basis of existing data, establish a digital soil health data portal (the digital soil health data portal) to provide access in a georeferenced spatial format to at least the available soil health data, aggregated at the soil unit level or at a more detailed level, resulting from: (a) the soil measurements referred to in Article 9(3) and (4); (b) the relevant soil remote-sensing data and products referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article. The processing and accessing of soil health data referred to in the first subparagraph shall be performed in accordance with relevant Union law. 6. The Commission and the EEA shall ensure that the Member States are given, in a timely and effective manner, the opportunity to review soil health data and to request the correction of any errors, before such data are made public through the digital soil health data portal. The Commission and the EEA shall ensure that such opportunity is also given in relation to any other report to be published in the digital soil health data portal and based on the soil monitoring framework. 7. The digital soil health data portal may provide access to soil health-related data other than the data referred to in paragraph 5 if those soil health-related data were shared or collected in accordance with the formats or methods established by the Commission pursuant to paragraph 9. 8. The digital soil health data portal shall not provide access to data and information the disclosure of which would adversely affect public security or national defence. 9. The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to establish formats or methods for sharing or collecting the data referred to in this Article or for integrating those data in the digital soil health data portal. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 22(2).