EC calls on Romania to take action to reduce air pollution

European Commission has called on Romania and eight other EU Member States to take action to reduce air pollution. During the air quality ministerial summit that took place on 30 January in Brussels, Commissioner for Environment Karmenu Vella called on Member States facing infringement procedures for exceeding agreed air pollution limits to finalize their submissions by the end of next week on how they intend to comply with EU law on air quality, or else face legal action, according to an EC press release.

Nine Member States - namely the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the United Kingdom - face infringement procedures for exceeding agreed air pollution limits. If the countries concerned do not submit the requested measures, the Commission will refer the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The subject was analyzed yesterday at RADIO ROMANIA NEWS in the "Problems to the day" show, where the Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Environment, Ionel Petre, said that for Romania, there are two areas considered for non-compliance with the EU norms for the quality of the air:

Ionel Petre: In Romania, the procedure initially targeted 17 zones, but at this moment only Bucharest, Brașov and Iași are mentioned. We have to keep in mind that Brașov has already come out (of the targeted area, n.a.), so we have two more areas that need to be solved at urban level: Bucharest and Iași. I would like to point out, though, that air quality is a priority for the Ministry of Environment, it has been assumed in the government program, right from the first mandate of Minister Gavrilescu, in 2015, steps have been taken to set up the national monitoring network. Unfortunately, it was only in 2017 that these steps could could be finalized.

Experts estimate that more than 400,000 people die prematurely every year in the European Union because of poor air quality, which is the cause of respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

European Commission also estimates that this problem causes financial damage of 20 billion euros each year.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei