The European Commission decided to sue France, Germany and a number of other countries of the community for non-observance of air purity. This was announced at a press conference by European Commissioner for the Environment Carmenu Vella, reports Reuters.
As noted, the UK, along with France and Germany, are planned to be held liable for exceeding the limits on nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) emissions. At the same time, Hungary, Italy and Romania deviated from the particulate matter standards.
Back in January, the European Commission indicated that tough measures will be taken against the EU countries that continue to exceed the indicators established in 2005 and 2010. “The Commission concluded that in the case of the six Member States, the proposed additional measures were not sufficient to bring air into compliance in the shortest possible time,” Vella said.
He added that Spain, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have escaped prosecution in court: they have promised to introduce new rules to help reduce air pollution.