Brussels, 24/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 24 January 2013, Bulgaria, Latvia and Slovenia were asked by the European Commission to take urgent action to deal with the persistent problem of bad air quality with higher levels of microparticles (PM10) than allowed under EU rules, particles that can cause asthma, cardiovascular problems, lung cancer and early death. The decision was part of the Commission's usual batch of monthly infringement notices.
A further warning letter has been sent to the government of the three countries in question, calling for urgent and effective action to improve air quality. This is part of a new approach by the Commission to expand its infringement proceedings and take a more determined stand to deal with poor air quality, which kills more people in Europe every year than road accidents.
In the past, for similar overshooting of the caps on pollution (infringing Article 13 of EU Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and pure air for Europe), the Commission successfully took cases to the European Court of Justice against Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden which failed to ensure their inhabitants had good air quality, but the Court of Justice rulings only covered past behaviour and did little to encourage the countries to take action to prevent similar overshootings in the future. The new approach is based on Article 23 of the same directive, which requires member states to draw up action plans of measures to ensure the overshoot is remedied as soon as possible and failure to do so will result in court cases.
At present, there are court proceedings against seventeen member states for exceeding maximum PM10 pollution levels (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Slovakia and Slovenia).
In November 2012, Belgium was sent an extra warning letter, but the other 16 countries still exceed the cap on PM10 particles. Poor air quality is a direct threat to citizens exposed to pollution from fine particles (PM10), which originates from sources such as road traffic, industrial activity and domestic heating. According to recent research, a majority (56%) of Europeans believe that air quality has deteriorated in the EU over the past ten years and 79% say the EU should put forward extra measures to tackle air pollution (see EUROPE 10759). EU air quality legislation is under review and 2013 is European Clean Air Year. (AN/transl.fl)