The European Commission announced on Friday that a ministerial summit will be held at the end of the month on 30 January in Brussels, so that the EU executive will assist the member states which are subject to infringement procedures for non-compliance with the bloc’s standards on air quality.
Environment Ministers of nine member states, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia will participate, even though it is 23 member states whose emissions break EU limits for nitrogen dioxide or particulate matter (PM10), pollutants that are dangerous for health and are particularly related to road traffic. Sixteen more member states countries are also subject to infringement procedures, which are currently at different stages, linked to the emission limits of fine particles.
Nearly a year ago, the EU executive had already issued a "last warning” to five countries (France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy) among the 13 that did not respect the limits set for carbon dioxide. ‘nitrogen.
The meeting is considered to be part of an advanced stage of the European Commission’s infringement procedures, a step that is already taken for Bulgaria and Poland for their non-respect of air quality standards. This step along with the 30 January summit, aims to "protect citizens and clarify that if there is no improvement in air quality there will be legal consequences” for these countries, said Friday the Commissioner in charge of the Environment, Karmenu Vella in Brussels.
According to the Commissioner, the nine member states’ referral to the European court "would be the outcome of a long period, too long say some, during which we offered our help, gave advice and issued warnings.”
Infringement procedures to better protect EU citizens’ health
More than 400,000 citizens die prematurely every year in the EU because of poor air quality, according to Commissioner Vella. "Parents of children with bronchitis or children of people with lung disease want to see improvements in air quality as quickly as possible,” he said, while the Berlaymont’s published data show the bad air quality which also causes respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
To tackle the above problems, the EU executive has adopted an Action Plan on Friday with measures to help member states comply with EU environmental rules by reducing the overall volume of traffic, switching to electric cars, adapting driver behavior and reducing emissions from diesel vehicles.
