25/04/24 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday 25 April, the European Parliament adopted, by 381 votes to 225 with 17 abstentions, the political agreement reached with the EU Council on 22 February (see EUROPE 13355/9) on new measures to improve air quality in the EU. The texts, aligned with the objective of “zero air pollution” by 2050, impose stricter standards for the major pollutants (fine particles and particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, benzo(a)pyrene, arsenic, lead and nickel), effective from 2030, with a possible ten-year extension. They also open up rights to legal action and compensation for citizens who have suffered damage. According to the rapporteur, Javi López (S&D, Spanish), updating standards that are more than twenty years old could reduce pollution “by half”. Find the text: https://aeur.eu/f/byo (NP)