The European Commission has appointed Mihail Dumitru (pictured) as new chair of the Mission Board EU Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”. M. Dumitru is a former Minister of agriculture and rural development of Romania and former Deputy Director-General in the Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development. He will bring his extensive experience on agricultural and soil issues, the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), rural development and research and innovation to provide advice and help achieve the Mission’s objectives. 

M. Dumitru is starting in his new role on 1 September 2026 and will take part in the conference 'Mission forward: Shaping the future through mission-oriented policy' organized by the OECD on 24-25 September in Paris, and in the European Mission Soil Week to be held on 17-18 November in Dublin.

The Mission Soil Board is composed of the following members:

• Mihail Dumitru - Chair
• Adrian Ferrero Fernandez, Economistas de la Innovación Slne, Biome Makers Inc, Spain
• Anna Krzywoszynska, University of Twente, Netherlands 
• Diego Marazza, Università di Bologna, Italy
• Endre Dobos, University of Miskolc, Hungary
• Gabriele Broll, University of Osnabrueck, Germany     
• Harry Vereecken, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany        
• Iustina Boajă, National Institute for Research and Development in Environmental Protection, Geological Institute of Romania
• Mateusz Ciasnocha, Ciasnocha Family Farms, European Carbon Farmers, Poland
• Muriel Mambrini Doudet, Institut de recherche pour le développement, France
• Paloma Melgarejo, Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, Spain
• Pandi Zdruli, CIHEAM Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari, Italy
• Teresa Pinto-Correia, University of Evora, Portugal

Background

The role of the Mission Soil Board is to provide strategic advice for the Mission Soil implementation and to promote its activities.

More information

EU Mission: A Soil Deal for Europe

“Sound is a tangible way of connecting to aspects of nature that are hidden from humans. The deep ocean, the dark night, and now the dense earth beneath our feet,” writes Ella Browning. And you can hear underground for yourself in the fascinating recordings she includes in her essay on earthworm “munching.” In this emerging field of soil ecoacoustics, researchers—including Browning—are finding links between ecosystem recovery and the character of underground soundscapes. Healthy soil literally sounds different. This piece will change how you view the ground beneath your feet.

A core principle of ecoacoustics is that complexly noisy natural places are healthier natural places. This means that it’s not just the volume of noise, but the diversity of sound that indicates habitat health. The dawn chorus in an intact Bornean tropical forest is magical in its complexity, especially if you’re lucky to experience it mixed in with the whoops of a troop of gibbons swinging through overhead, as I was during a visit in 2019.

In contrast, cities are generally not ecologically healthy and, while they are incredibly noisy places, they are filled with the harsh, more monotonous sounds of car engines and other machines, and often little biotic sound. Soundscapes dominated by anthropogenic sounds have been linked to poor mental health in people, whereas the opposite has been found for natural sounds like birdsong or forest soundscapes.