EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Committee on Petitions NOTICE TO MEMBERS

Transcription

1 EUROPEAN PARLIAMT Committee on Petitions NOTICE TO MEMBERS Subject: Petition 1065/2007 by Alessandro Nucci (Italian) concerning urban atmospheric pollution 1. Summary of petition (The petitioner has been seeking information from the municipal authorities concerning urban air quality and levels of noise pollution caused by public transport. The petitioner, a medical practitioner, expresses concern about the high PM10 levels of air pollution in his home town of Viareggio (Tuscany). He is concerned about the way in which measurements are recorded by the local authority). 2. Admissibility Declared admissible on 11 March Information requested from Commission under Rule 192(4). 3. Commission reply, received on 26 September The petitioner, an occupational doctor, has asked the Town Council of Viareggio to: provide the public with information on how many times the PM 10 limit values were exceeded in 2006 (approximately 220) and 2007, as recorded by the two air quality monitoring stations in Largo Risorgimento and Via Maronecelli. give the public explanations on the location of the monitoring stations, since no data have been reported (nor on noise levels) for the main road (Via Mazzini), through CM\ doc PE v04-00 United in diversity

2 which some 300 buses a day transit without any environmental impact study having been undertaken For those zones where measurements are mandatory, the criteria for determining the location and number of monitoring stations for measuring compliance with PM 10 limit values are laid down in Directive 1999/30/EC relating to limit values for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter and lead in ambient air 1, more specifically Article 7, in conjunction with Annexes VI and VII. Those provisions are due to be replaced by the new Directive 2008/50/EC of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe by 11 June 2010 at the latest. 2 The relevant provisions of the new directive, more specifically Article 7, in conjunction with annexes III and V, do not provide for any major changes in substance as compared to Directive 1999/30/EC. The location of the sampling points should be determined so as to give representative information on the exposure of the public to concentrations, and where the highest concentrations occur to which the population is likely to be exposed for a period which is significant in relation to the averaging period of the limit values. The number of sampling points is determined by the size of the population of the agglomeration or zone and the level of the concentrations. In Viareggio there are two monitoring stations for the measurement of PM 10 Largo Risorgimento (Urban Traffic); Via Maroncelli (Urban-Background). The city of Viareggio is not an agglomeration in itself but is part of the zone IT 0902 counting approximately inhabitants. In view of the size of the zone and the city of Viareggio, the number of stations complies with the criteria laid down in Directive 1999/30/EC. On the basis of information available, the Commission cannot identify any breach of provisions as regards the location of the two stations. The data reported for the IT 0902 zone reveal exceedances of the PM 10 annual and daily limit values, unambiguously triggering the need for abatement action in the zone. For 2006 the maximum number of days in exceedance of the daily limit value in Viareggio, reported officially to the Commission by the Italian authorities, was 79. According to the information available to the Commission, the competent authorities have started to take air pollution abatement measures in the zone as early as Measures have however not brought compliance with the PM 10 limit values by the attainment date in This is not an isolated case in Italy, and the Commission requested the Italian competent authorities in October last year to provide further and more detailed information as to which measures they are taking in order to achieve compliance with those limit values throughout its territory. The technical assessment of the reply received on 3 January 2008, is currently taking place. In the zone in question, and directly linked to the petitioner's concern, the regional air quality plan, which was updated in 2007, provides for a renewal of the public transport fleet 1 OJ L 163, , p OJ L , p. 1. PE v /5 CM\ doc

3 with cleaner vehicles and introduces a mandatory requirement to retrofit buses with a particulate filters. The Commission does not have information to what extent these measures have already been implemented in the city of Viareggio. The Commission will on the basis of the completed technical analysis of the reply by the Italian authorities decide on the further action needed. In that decision account will also be taken of the possibility given to Member States under the new Directive 2008/50/EC to conditionally extend the time required to achieve compliance with the limit values for PM10.. According to Article 8 of Directive 1999/30/EC, daily up-dated information on ambient concentrations of PM10 shall routinely be made available to the public. The new air quality Directive 2008/50/EC provides for similar obligations in Article 26 in conjunction with Annex XVI. In Regione Toscana annual reports on the air quality as well as daily reports on data measured in all the monitoring stations of the region, including those in Viareggio are available to the public on the ARPAT (local environmental agency) web site: Other information is also available on the Regione Toscana web site: RT/MenuPrincipale/sezioni/ambiente_territorio/inquinamento_qualita_aria/index.html. On the basis of the available information, it is not possible to identify a breach of the applicable provisions on public information set out in Directive 1999/30/EC. As the road referred to by the petitioner already exists, there is no obligation to draw up an environmental impact assessment under Council Directive 85/337/EEC 1 on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment. The city of Viareggio has less than inhabitants and as such it does not fall within the scope of Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise 2 as regards the obligation to establish noise maps or actions plans. The monitoring and management of noise levels in the city therefore falls entirely within the competence of national authorities. Conclusions On the basis of the information available, the location and number of monitoring stations in the city of Viareggio as well as the information made available to the public comply with the requirements of Directive 1999/30/EC. The Commission notes that there are exceedances of the daily and annual limit values for PM10 in the zone for 2006, and that there is an air quality plan with measures addressing urban mobility established for the area. The Commission is assessing the information provided by Italy as regards exceedances of PM10 and will on the basis of that assessment and the provisions of the new air quality Directive take appropriate action. Directives 85/337/EEC and 2002/49/EC are not applicable to the situations referred to by the petitioner. 1 OJ L 175, , p OJ L 189, , p. 12. CM\ doc 3/5 PE v04-00

4 4. Further Commission reply, received on 20 November In January 2009, the Italian authorities submitted a request to the Commission for an exemption from the obligation to apply the limit values for PM 10 in sixty-seven air quality zones including the IT0902 zone, to which the city of Viareggio belongs. In accordance with Article 22(2) of Directive 2008/50/EC 1 a Member State may be exempt from obligations to apply the limit values for PM10 if all appropriate abatement measures have been taken at national, regional and local levels to achieve compliance by the 2005 deadline, the principal cause of the exceedance can be attributed to site-specific dispersion characteristics, adverse climatic conditions or transboundary contributions, and an air quality plan is established demonstrating that conformity with the limit values will be achieved before the expiry of the new deadline. The Commission has assessed the Italian notification and adopted Decision C(2009)7390 final on 28 September 2009 in which objections were raised against the exemption from the obligation to apply the daily and the annual limit value for PM 10 in zone IT0902 on the following grounds: it has not been fully demonstrated that adverse climatic conditions and transboundary contributions can be considered as the chief causes of the exceedances; it has not been fully demonstrated that compliance with the limit values can be achieved by the expiry of the exemption period in As a consequence, the PM 10 limit values will continue to apply without a margin of tolerance in the zones concerned by the objections. The most up-to-date information officially reported to the Commission by the Italian authorities confirms that the air quality zone IT0902 was still in exceedance of the PM 10 daily limit value in The Commission will monitor the levels of PM 10 in this and other air quality zones in Italy. Should the official, validated data for 2008 show that the limit values continue to be exceeded, the Commission will pursue this further through the infringement proceedings initiated in January 2009 against Italy for breaching the limit values for PM 10 in several zones and agglomerations. 5. Further Commission reply, received on 13 January 2011 On 8 October 2010, the Italian authorities submitted the official air quality data for Tuscany, for This data confirms that, in the zone IT0902, the PM 10 levels were still in exceedance of the daily limit value. The Commission, therefore, decided on 24 November 2010 to take Italy to the Court of Justice of the European Union over failure to comply with the PM 10 limit 1 OJ L 152, , p. 1 PE v /5 CM\ doc

5 values as laid down in Directive 1999/30/EC 1 and replaced by Directive 2008/50/EC 2, in several zones and agglomerations. 6. Further Commission reply (III), received on 30 April 2014 In its ruling of 19 December , the CJEU found that the Italian Republic had failed to fulfil its obligations by not ensuring compliance with the limit values laid down for PM10 in a number of air quality zones and agglomerations, including the one mentioned by the petitioners (IT0902). Following this ruling, in April 2013, the Commission requested the Italian authorities to indicate what measures were being taken in order to reach compliance in the air quality zones concerned. In September 2013, the Italian authorities submitted the official air quality data concerning year These data indicate that, in zone IT0902, compliance was finally achieved and the PM 10 levels were below the limit values laid down by Directive 2008/50/EC 4. 1 OJ L 163, , p OJ L 152, , p.1 3 Case C-68/11 4 OJ L 152, , p.1 CM\ doc 5/5 PE v04-00