The EU’s Environment Commissioner
Karmenu Vella met
with environment ministers from nine member states on Tuesday today to
discuss their countries’ failure to meet Brussels’ air quality
standards.
Ministers from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the UK, Romania,
Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia met with Vella where he said
the ministers expressed an understanding that immediate action must be
taken but warned that the Commission would severely penalise members
that breached EU rules on pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and
particulate matter.
Vella said more than 400,000 people die prematurely every year
in Europe as a result of air pollution and previous air quality
standards set more than a decade ago are still violated by 23 of the 28
EU member states.
The primary concern of the Commission is to protect EU citizen but
said a "sense of urgency” is not always present when it comes to air
quality, according to Vella.
"I urge all member states to address this life-threatening problem,
and with the type of urgency that it deserves,” said Vella. "In our
exchange, there were some positive suggestions, but I have to say that
at first sight, these were not substantial enough to change the bigger
picture,” he said, adding members had until next week to improve on
their proposals.”
In order to meet the 2020 climate change deadline, Vella said EU
members need to make improving air quality standards a priority within
their respective governments.
"There are no new deadlines, we are not delaying (anything) and we
are not postponing the process,” said Vella. "The deadlines have long
elapsed and some say we have waited already too long. We can delay no
more…I made this very clear to the ministers this morning.”
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/eu-environment-commission-takes-hard-line-air-quality-violators/