Ambient air quality: common strategy for assessment and management

Parliament adopted the recommendation for second reading by Mr Mihail PAPAYANNAKIS (GUE/NGL, EL) on the common position established by the Council with a view to the adoption of a Council directive on ambient air quality assessment and management. Some amendments adopted by Parliament at first reading but not accepted by the Council were retabled by the European Parliament. These amendments mainly cover the following aspects: - the introduction of a definition of the "critical load" concept; - the definition of "target value": a level based on scientific knowledge concerning the critical load, i.e. the concentration above which direct adverse effects on human beings, animals, plants or goods may occur, fixed with the aim of averting or preventing more long-term harmful effects on human health and the environment; - in the definition of "agglomeration", the threshold of 100,000 (as opposed to 250,000) inhabitants should be considered as the population density justifying air quality assessment and management; - the fixing of a maximum period of five years for the temporary margin of tolerance for a limit value, where such a margin is laid down; - the shortening of the time-limits (from 2 years to 1 year) for the submission by the Member States of the air quality improvement plans; - the replacement of the regulatory committee (type IIIa) by an advisory committee responsible for updating the directive in line with scientific and technical progress, in accordance with the initial Commission proposal and the normal practice followed by Parliament; - the shortening of the deadlines for the submission of proposals on benzene and carbon monoxide and, by extension, the transfer of the these pollutants to the first series in Annex I; - the incorporation in Annex I of a third series of pollutants to be considered at a later stage, given that the other two series set out in that Annex do not cover all the dangerous pollutants which should be subject to regulatory measures.�