Compensation may apply after 2030 if excessive air pollution harms our health

On Wednesday, the European Parliament voted for EU countries to introduce new measures to improve air quality, the body’s statement says.

The new rules introduce stricter limits by 2030 for pollutants that are particularly harmful to health, such as fine airborne dust (PM2.5 and PM10), nitrogen and sulfur dioxide. Under certain conditions, Member States can request a ten-year postponement (such as if, for example, a significant part of domestic heating systems would have to be replaced in order to comply with the limit values).

According to the EP’s announcement on Wednesday

those affected by air pollution can take legal action if the new national rules are breached and receive compensation if their health is damaged.

With the new rules, more measurement points must be set up in cities, and air quality indicators must be made comparable, clear and publicly available throughout the EU.

The EP voted for the proposal with 381 yes, 225 no and 17 abstentions. Based on the parliamentary register, among the Hungarian representatives who voted, those from the government party voted no, and those from the opposition voted yes. The legislation still has to be adopted by the Council of EU member states’ ministers, but the body already made a deal with the representative body in February, after which the vote is usually just a formality. If accepted, the legislation will be promulgated and enter into force twenty days later, but the member states must separately transpose it into their national law, which they have two years to do.

Years ago, the European Commission initiated proceedings against the Hungarian authorities due to regular and persistent violations of the current rules (partially between 2005 and 2017). The case went to trial, and in 2021 the EU court found the breach of obligation and stated: “Hungary obviously did not adopt the measures in time” to make “the duration of exceeding the limit values ​​for PM10 particles” as short as possible in the affected areas.

As we wrote about on the basis of the announcement of the Air Working Group last December, in rural areas – partly out of necessity due to poverty – burnt waste also worsens the smog situation when it gets cold, but even wood contains a thousand times as many PM10 particles as a 17-year-old truck exhaust gas.