24
Apr
2024
Watch
Ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (A9-0233/2023 - Javi López) (vote)
Madam President, during this term that we are now ending, we have experienced the most important health crisis that Europe has experienced in a century. We confined the population and our economies hibernated. It was a dramatic situation, but from which we draw some important lessons. First, that the most precious value of our society is the health of our citizens. Second, that the biggest and most important instrument for designing public policies is science. And third, that, probably, the professional group to which we have to recognize, listen and follow the most are the public health professionals. That is exactly what we are going to do today with the new directive on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe, which will set new limits on pollution and combat pollution, which according to the European Environment Agency is the biggest environmental threat to public health and causes 300 000 direct and indirect deaths per year. In Europe, in the last ten years, we have 6,319 deaths of children under one year of age directly related to pollution. This is an ambitious new law, but, at the same time, it is the result of a balanced agreement with the Council, and will allow flexibilities, better monitor and reflect the reality of the entire territory, and will accompany local administrations in its application and implementation. This new law will protect public health and our citizens, because we know that clean air is not just a luxury; This is, above all, a right that we must guarantee with this new directive. For all these reasons, I call on you to give massive support to this directive for clean air.