The European Commissioner for the Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, Jessika Roswall, stated this Friday at Forum Europa in Brussels that “air quality is not good in Europe, but much better than elsewhere”.
Roswall pointed out at this information session organized by New Economy Forum in the EU capital that she maintains “very close contact” with all countries to help them improve their air pollution levels.
Last week, the European Commission took Bulgaria, Lithuania, Portugal, and Sweden to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to meet their commitments to reduce emissions of several air pollutants.
“We can’t live in luxury or disregard the rules we’ve all agreed upon”, Roswall emphasised, adding that air quality has improved following successive EU regulations over the past few decades, resulting in “fewer premature deaths”.
Roswall stressed that countries “sometimes” struggle to implement these regulations, but that air quality standards are “a good example of how environmental legislation has yielded positive results”.
