Brussels, 30/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 29 January, the European Commission had to start infringement proceedings against 10 member states for failing to comply with the EU's air quality standard for dangerous airborne particles known as PM10. These particles, emitted mainly by industry, traffic and domestic heating, can cause asthma, cardiovascular problems, lung cancer and premature death.
The Commission sent first warning letters to 10 member states - Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK - that have not yet achieved compliance with the PM10 limit values in force since 1 January 2005. The exceedances addressed in these letters affect 83 million people in 132 different air quality zones designated for the purpose of testing air quality. These member states have not submitted requests for extra time to meet the standards in all air quality zones where the PM10 limit values are being exceeded.
The new Air Quality directive, which came into force on 11 June 2008, allows member states to request limited time extensions to meet the PM10 standard under certain conditions. Time extensions will apply only in those air quality zones for which it is demonstrated that an effort was made to achieve the limit values in 2005 but that compliance was not possible due to specific external circumstances. Member states must also demonstrate, through the establishment of an air quality plan for each zone, that compliance will be achieved by expiry of the new deadline.
Eleven member states have so far submitted requests for time extensions for all the zones. The Commission is currently assessing whether these requests satisfy the conditions for extensions and will decide within nine months of receiving the notifications whether to raise objections or not. Four member states - Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain - have not submitted requests for all the air quality zones that exceed the limit values. Several other member states have informed the Commission that they are drafting air quality plans for non-compliant zones and intend to submit time extension requests in the coming months. Bulgaria and Romania reported exceedances for the first time in 2008. They have been reminded of the obligation to comply with the standards and have been asked to submit a time extension notification before 31 March 2009 for their zones in exceedance.
Four member states are not affected by the infringements or notifications. Finland and Lithuania have demonstrated that the exceedances are due to winter sanding of roads - which is explicitly allowed by the directive - while Ireland and Luxembourg are the only member states not to have reported any exceedances. (L.C./transl.rt)