Negotiations between the EU institutions (trilogue) will resume the evening of Tuesday 23 January, on the proposed revision of the Directives on ambient air quality aimed at bringing emission limit values for atmospheric pollutants more into line with WHO recommendations (see EUROPE 13051/1). A second, very brief trilogue, held on 13 December in Strasbourg at the request of the European Parliament, failed to produce any significant political progress.
For the third trilogue, the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council has been mandated to revise one point - short-term action plans (Article 20 of the future Directive) - in the compromise proposal examined by the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) on Wednesday 17 January.
These action plans indicate the emergency measures to be taken to correct the situation when pollutant levels exceed one or more alert thresholds.
In an attempt to reach an agreement with Parliament (see EUROPE 13249/13), the Belgian Presidency suggested showing a little flexibility by abandoning the derogation for fine particles PM10 and PM2.5 introduced by the EU Council in Article 20. However, several delegations pointed to the risk of too heavy an administrative and financial burden and therefore called for a return to the original mandate defined by the EU Council’s general approach adopted in November (see EUROPE 13289/5).
The other elements of the compromise text concern Articles 8 (assessment criteria), 9 (sampling points), 10 (monitoring supersites) and 15 (exceedance of alert or information thresholds).
Tuesday’s trilogue will deal solely with all these subjects, with the most sensitive political issues saved for last, namely the assessment criteria (Article 8), the deadlines for achieving the limit values (Article 18) and the air quality plans (Article 19 and Chapter VII on access to justice, compensation and penalties).
A fourth trilogue is currently scheduled for 15 or 16 February. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)