Brussels, 26/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - The thematic strategy on air pollution recently presented by the European Commission (EUROPE 9032) is a source of disappointment for environmental NGOs that consider it lacking in ambition to make any significant difference to air quality.
The criticism voiced by the European Environment Bureau (EEB) mainly concerns the fact that no legal obligations are set to reduce concentrations of health-damaging fine particles (PM2.5) in the proposal for a directive annexed to the Commission communication. “The Commission's own analysis has shown that each year some 350,000 people die prematurely due to exposure to fine particles alone. In addition, millions of people suffer from respiratory illnesses. A legal binding requirement to make real reductions on particles emissions would have been the only right answer. Instead, the Commission decided to postpone such target setting for many years and to make the Directive into a toothless tiger”, Kerstin Meyer, an expert in air pollution, states in a press release. She denounces the possibility offered to Member States to be dispensed for five years from having to comply with existing limit values for the particles that are less fine (PM10), saying: “In most cases, Member States have just not done enough and have not started early enough to meet the existing limits. Granting derogations simply rewards laggards”.
According to the EEB, this thematic strategy fixing pollution reduction targets for 2020 for five main atmospheric pollutants that are most harmful for health and ecosystems (SO2, NOx, NH3, COV, particles) is largely insufficient to allow the EU to reach its long-term objectives for health and the environment. Jean-Luc Hontelez, EEB General Secretary, considers the strategy is “a small step, a step too small to accept, given the still worsening state of the overall environment in Europe, and the particular health risks of air pollution”. As proof of this, the Commission expects the future legislation will save 62,000 premature deaths annually (compared to the current legislation). Commission calculations have shown that, for a more ambitious reduction of some 74,000 premature deaths per year, the benefits would still outweigh the costs by a factor of up to ten.
It is an anti-Lisbon strategy, T&E says
The European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E) is hardly more enthusiastic. It considers that “unfortunately there is little to welcome here” other than the fact that it has finally been published. “In the field of transport, it is not a strategy. It is a collection of restatements of existing policies and some weak promises. Now is not the time to investigate the feasibility of or to hear that the Commission intends to do something. It is time for real action”, Jos Dings, the NGO Director, stresses. He goes on to add: “What's more worrying is that the concrete policy measures that are linked to the 'strategy', like Euro 5 emissions standards for passenger cars, also look terribly weak. The Commission leadership is, in reality, pursuing an anti-Lisbon strategy by listening only to certain lowest-common-denominator industry groups and ignoring the potential of innovative companies to do more”.