Bratislava, 12/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - A further step was taken on Tuesday 12 July towards formal revision of the directive on national ceilings for emissions of certain air pollutants (Directive 2003/35/EC, known as the NEC directive).
The European Parliament's environment committee, which is chaired by Giovanni La Via (EPP, Italy) gave its backing (by 43 votes to 14, with 3 abstentions) to the provisional inter-institutional agreement reached on 30 June, with the clock ticking down on the Netherland's six-month presidency (EUROPE 11586, 11584).
The text, which sets new national ceilings for five pollutants to be achieved by 2030 with an intermediate indicative stage in 2025, aims to reduce the annual number of premature deaths due to air pollution (which totalled 400,000 in 2010) by 49.6% by 2030.
The agreement will be put to the European Parliament plenary session in November for approval before the Council can formally adopt the revised directive. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)