Stakeholders debate EU air quality review

EU air quality legislation should pay more attention to ultra-fine particles and black carbon, according to the preliminary findings of a consultation ran last year as part of an ongoing legal review. The results were presented at a stakeholder meeting last week.

This was the second meeting to be held in Brussels by the European Commission since the air quality law review kicked off last year. A final analysis of stakeholders' responses to the consultation will be published by consultancy TNO in May.

Dick van den Hout of TNO said important issues, other than very harmful particulate matter, included providing more consistency between EU air quality standards and requirements and other pieces of legislation such as Euro norms for vehicles.

Another recurring demand was that air quality legislation should continue to provide some degree of flexibility, particularly through derogations. Several calls were also made for more stringent standards, mainly from environmental groups.

During the debate, the EU executive was asked to outline how it intends to revise existing law. Thomas Verheye, head of DG Environment's unit on industrial emissions and air quality, said it was too early to determine the commission's view on the subject because it is still collecting feedback from stakeholders and conducting studies.

Source: ENDS Europe