The environment committee of the European Parliament approved a report this Thursday in which the Commission is asked to "establish new legal provisions in directives on air quality to prevent local policies and measures that have proven to be effective" not they may "be reversed without in-depth explanation or evaluation." In addition, MEPs have supported an amendment in which they are committed to deploying sustainable mobility measures and low-emission zones. This report, which has been approved with the favorable votes of the Socialists, the Greens, the Left and the Liberals, is part of
The environment committee of the European Parliament approved a report this Thursday in which the Commission is asked to "establish new legal provisions in directives on air quality to prevent local policies and measures that have proven to be effective" not they may "be reversed without in-depth explanation or evaluation." In addition, MEPs have supported an amendment in which they are committed to deploying sustainable mobility measures and low-emission zones. This report, which has been approved with the favorable votes of the Socialists, the Greens, the Left and the Liberals, is part of the process that has been opened to revise upwards the EU air quality directives. Among the highlights is the request for the maximum legal levels of pollutants regulated by European directives to be adjusted to the thresholds established by the World Health Organization (WHO). In the air quality standards in force for two decades in Europe, these limits are much looser than those established by the WHO as safe for human health. The text approved this Thursday literally asks that they be aligned with those of the WHO in the case of several pollutants, such as PM10 and particles or ozone. The socialist MEP Javi López, who has been in charge of preparing the report voted on by the environment commission, considers as a key point the commitment to non-reversal of the measures that seek to improve air quality in cities, as happened with Central Madrid when the PP returned to the mayoralty of the capital of Spain. "You cannot allow local authorities to eliminate bike lanes or low-emission zones," he says. "This must be a path of no return," adds López, who points out that anti-pollution measures have also been reversed in other European cities such as Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Low emission zones are quite widespread in many European countries. In Spain, they will become widespread thanks to the climate change law that is being processed in Congress and whose text e
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