On October 7th, EFA along its allies in the EU Healthy Air Coalition united their voice in a letter addressed to the EU environment ministers. Published just a week before the key Council meeting where the revised EU Ambient Air Quality Directive was set to be voted on. The message was clear: confirm the revised rules and proceed with swift implementation at the national level.
Air pollution and health crisis
The letter highlighted the significant burden of air pollution on health, contributing to more than 300.000 premature deaths and costs the EU hundreds of billions of euros in healthcare expenses each year. The impact is particularly devastating for vulnerable populations, including patients with allergy and respiratory conditions, children, pregnant women, the elderly, and those facing health inequalities.
Key improvements in the revised directive
While falling short to provide for full alignment of pollutant limit values with the recommendations of the WHO Air Quality Guidelines, the revised directive contains key elements that can improve air quality and support prevention of diseases such as allergy, asthma and COPD. Promising measures include lower limit values for all major pollutants, better public information, access to justice, and the right to compensation in case of health damages due to air pollution.
The discussion at the Council would be the last step in a seven-year process of legislative evaluation and revision. A week later, the Council indeed gave the green light for the adoption of the revised text with a huge majority, paving the way to turning it into law.
In the two years following the directive’s adoption, national governments will be required to adopt the appropriate measures to achieve the targets set by the new rules. The Coalition partners are ready to support national policymakers and administrations for a health-promoting transposition into national legislation.
You can read the full EUHAC letter here.