Green light to the new EU rules on air quality:from fine particles to the right to compensation, here's what will change

The agreement between EU institutions to set the new parameters necessary to reduce and eliminate smog

«Healthier for you, better for the environment!», writes Belgium's rotating presidency of the Council of the EU on social media, announcing the agreement reached by the Brussels institutions on the new directive on air quality.Among the main innovations of the text, part of the «Zero Pollution» package developed by the team Ursula von der Leyen, there are more stringent limits for pollutants.In particular, the new rules approved by the Twenty-seven and by the European Parliament to reduce smog - responsible for 300 thousand deaths a year in Europe - provide for a decisive tightening of the levels of the most harmful pollutants, namely fine particles PM2.5, PM10 and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), as well as the right to compensation for citizens.

What the agreement provides

As regards the pollutants most harmful to human health - PM2.5 and NO2 -, the annual limit values ​​will have to be more than halved, going from the current 25 to 10 micrograms per cubic meter and from 40 to 20 micrograms per cubic meter respectively, in an attempt to reduce the number of premature deaths caused by fine particles by at least 55%.The agreement arrives in the days in which in Italy - in the North in particular - thealert on poor air quality.The Po Valley, according to the words of the president of Legambiente Lombardia, has reached «the peak of one pollution crisis» with smog levels that have not been reached since 2017.In fact, since mid-February the Arpa control units they record values ​​of PM 2.5 and PM 10, the so-called "fine particles", well beyond the limits permitted by Italian law and more than quadruple those considered safe by the WHO.

Air quality indices "clear, comparable and accessible"

Member countries have also established the need to make air quality indices, currently fragmented across Europe, "comparable, clear and accessible" to the public, providing information on the symptoms associated with smog peaks and on the health risks for each polluting.Air quality standards will also be re-analysed by 31 December 2030 and thereafter at least every five years, more often if required by new scientific data, for example from the WHO.The governments of the 27 will have to draw up air quality plans if they exceed the limits imposed and draw up detailed air quality roadmaps by 31 December 2028, which define short and long-term measures to respect the new values limit 2030.However, member countries will be able to ask to postpone the 2030 deadline by up to 10 years, if some specific conditions are guaranteed.The agreement reached in Brussels includes the right to compensation for citizens.In detail, those who suffer damage to their health due to air pollution will be able to be compensated in the event of violations of EU rules by national governments.

Cover photo:ANSA/DANIEL DAL ZENNARO | Smog in Milan