2023 will be remembered as a defining year for air quality in Europe. Following a long period of public consultations, the revision of the EU Ambient Air Quality Directive (AAQD) entered the last stage of the legislative process. Throughout the year, EFA intensified the advocacy work for clean air in Europe. We organised an EFA Members’ workshop to identify the community concerns that should be addressed in the EU Air Quality Directives.
EFA community asks reflected a health-protective, science-driven revision of the legislative framework, including the full alignment of EU air quality standards with the 2021 WHO recommendations by 2030, better public information on air quality, and the establishment of a citizen-friendly framework for access to justice and compensation for damages due to air pollution.
We submitted in a Commission public consultation outlining the patients’ ask and we met with six Members of the European Parliament working on the AAQD file.
EFA Senior Policy Advisor Panagiotis Chaslaridis with Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Javi López and MEP Petros Kokkalis.
We also rallied together with the public health community, especially partnering with the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) of which EFA is a member and sits in the Executive Committee, and with the European Respiratory Society (ERS). Together, we signed four joint letters to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.
Through meetings with key decision-makers, proposals for concrete legislative amendments, but also joint advocacy letters, EFA was able to bring the asks of allergy, asthma, and COPD patients at the heart of the revision process, highlighting the heavy impact that air pollution has on respiratory health.
EFA brought these considerations to key policymakers through our participation in all Commission expert groups such as the Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform (four meetings in 2023). A delegation of two EFA representatives, including a Board Member, took active part in the 4th EU Clean Air Forum celebrated in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) were they highlighted the grave impact of air pollution on health, the lack of targeted air quality information, and the need to act urgently to ensure clean air for all. The subsequent summary report of the conference refers to some of these comments made by EFA.
We also discussed data about the impact of NO2 on asthma and COPD in a Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) webinar on “NO2 pollution and clean air standards”.
EFA’s ambient air quality advocacy in 2023
- January
- Two meetings with AAQD rapporteur for the EP ENVI committee, Javi López (S&D/Spain)
- Meeting with AAQD ENVI shadow rapporteur, Petros Kokkalis (GUE/NGL-Greece)
- Breakfast session ‘The Revision of the Air Quality Directive’, organised by the German Environmental Agency and hosted by MEPs Javi López and Michael Bloss
- February
- Meeting with AAQD ENVI shadow rapporteur, Michael Bloss (Greens/Germany)
- Meeting with AAQD rapporteur for the EP TRAN committee, Vera Tax (S&D/the Netherlands)
- EFA members’ workshop on the revision of AAQD
- March
- June
- Meeting with MEP Stelios Kympouropoulos (EPP-Greece)
- EFA speaker at HEAL webinar on NO2 pollution and clean air standards
- July – 7th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health
- September – Vote for clean air, prevent disease and save lives – health sector call to support Lopez report
- October – Health sector calls for clean air to prevent disease and save lives
- November – 4th EU Clean Air Forum
- December – Health groups coalition calls to accelerate action for clean air for health, instead of delaying
EFA Board Member Christine Strous and EFA Senior Policy Advisor took the floor in various sessions during the 4th EU Clean Air Forum in Rotterdam.
EFA’s presence at the 7th Ministerial Conference of WHO Europe’s Environment and Health Process in Budapest, as part of the HEAL delegation, enabled us to bring the patient concerns on the impacts of pollution and climate change on allergy and respiratory health to 63 Member States. The ensuing declaration reaffirms their commitment to strengthen action against the ‘triple crisis’ (climate change, environmental pollution, biodiversity loss), paying particular attention to vulnerable groups, such as allergy and respiratory patients.
EFA Senior Policy Advisor Panagiotis Chaslaridis brought the patients’ perspective to the conference and discussed it with Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Public Health, Environment and Social Determinants of Health.