With pollution causing more than 400,000 early deaths every year in the EU, protecting the health of European citizens from atmospheric pollution still leaves far too much to be desired, particularly in urban areas and the countries of Central Eastern Europe, the Court of Auditors of the EU states in a report published on Tuesday 11 September (special report no. 23).
This report is the result of an audit coordinated with 15 national audit bureaux and completed in October 2017. The aim was to examine the effectiveness of the member states’ implementation of the 2008 directive (2008/50/EC) on the quality of ambient air and clean air in Europe, the effectiveness of the controls carried out by the Commission and the measures it is taking to enforce this legislation and how EU policy reflects the imperative need to improve air quality.
The auditors identified shortcomings in the very structure of the directive, but also concluded that the infringement procedures were not sufficiently effective, as they take too long, and that EU sectorial policy, such as transport and agriculture, did not sufficiently reflect concerns related to poor air quality.
“Air pollution is the biggest environmental risk to health in the European Union. The effects on health are considerable. In four member states [Bulgaria, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Hungary], the situation is worse than in China. In Romania, it is worse than in India”, Janusz Wojciechowski, the member of the Court of Auditors responsible for the report, told the press.
According to the Court, air quality standards are not as strict as those of the WHO and many member states are struggling to comply with the directive, but are not doing enough to remedy this. Most of them do not comply with the standards. Member states are not measuring air quality in the right places, in other words along main urban roads, and are not reporting back to the Commission. The various EU policies are not sufficiently joined up, which is undermining the objectives of fighting air pollution.
“We are spending €1.8 billion on tackling air pollution, this represents less than 1% of the total funding of the Cohesion Policy. We are spending €3.4 billion on biomass or diesel. This is twice as much as for air quality, whilst burning wood, for instance, can increase air pollution”, Wojciechowski observed.
The auditors recommend: - that the Commission undertake more effective actions to bring pressure to bear on the member states and take legal action against them in the event of infringements; - a revision of the directive; - that air quality be confirmed as a priority to be embedded in the other EU sectorial policies; - that public awareness and information be improved.
Responding to the press, a member of the Court acknowledged that the Commission sometimes finds itself on the horns of a dilemma: the money spent on paying fines at the end of an infringement procedure reduces the resources available to resolve the problem by the same amount.
During the course of the audit, six cases were referred to the Court of Justice for infringement of the PM 10 standards. Since then, there have been more cases added since the mini-ministerial summit on air quality held by the Commission in Brussels in January (see EUROPE 12022). This is one effect of the report, the recommendations of which were accepted by the Commission, a member of the Court of Auditors stressed. “With the health check of the directive underway, we really hope our recommendations may be used as a basis”, she added. The report is available online at https://bit.ly/2QjY9Fz. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)