10/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - New legislation to reduce air pollution from medium-sized combustion plants. The EU directive has now been adopted that will limit the emissions of certain air pollutants from medium-sized electricity generators and from domestic and industrial heating and cooling systems. On Tuesday 10 November, the Council of the EU moved to the formal adoption, in first reading, of this legislation - which for the first time will regulate the pollution from 143,000 installations with a thermal capacity of 1-50 Megawatts (MW). European Commissioner for the Environment Karmenu Vella says this is progress in the fight against air pollution - which is responsible for 400,000 premature deaths a year in Europe. He states that this directive “closes an important gap in EU action to tackle air pollution at source”. The European Parliament gave its green light to the adoption of this legislation on 7 October (see EUROPE 11405). (AN)