It is time for Member States to comply with EU legislation on ambient air quality and for much more to be done in the future to significantly reduce air pollution, which kills more than 400,000 people prematurely in the EU each year, said the European Parliament on Thursday 25 March.
The importance of the issue for human health and environmental protection is at the heart of the own-initiative resolution on the implementation of the EU Ambient Air Quality Directives (2004/107/EC and 2008/50/EC), which was adopted (425 votes for, 109 votes against, 153 abstentions) (see EUROPE 12683/11).
Following its rapporteur, Javi López (S&D, Spain), the Parliament calls on Member States and the European Commission to act to improve compliance with existing standards, as the former have not taken enough action to improve air quality and minimise exceedances of limit values, despite infringement proceedings launched by the latter.
It welcomes the review of air quality standards announced by the Commission for the third quarter of 2022 to align them more closely with WHO standards as part of the ‘European Green Deal’.
MEPs believe that the revised standards should cover other unregulated pollutants that have a proven negative impact on health and the environment in the EU, such as ultrafine particles, black carbon, mercury and ammonia.
The resolution calls for air quality to be measured at appropriate locations and emission sources to ensure a correct estimation of air pollution.
The Commission is invited to present measures to support Member States in investing in the strengthening of monitoring networks through the construction of monitoring stations and the training and recruitment of specialists and analysts. The institution is also invited to promote greater rigour in supervision, control and monitoring. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)