Brussels, 7 October 2024
Dear Members of the Environment Council of the EU,
The Council will be voting on the trilogue agreement on updating EU’s clean air standards (Ambient Air Quality Directive), concluded between Parliament and Council on February 20th 2024. This revised AAQD brings the EU one step closer to finally tackling the public health emergency from air pollution. With the confirmation of the agreement on 24 April by Parliament and its recent adoption of the corrigendum requested by Council, the legislative revision process is finally coming to its much-awaited concluding step: your final confirmation of the new AAQD.
The EU Healthy Air Coalition (EUHAC) calls on you to confirm the revised directive. Our Coalition is ready to support you, your administration, as well as national authorities for a swift and health-promoting transposition into national legislation.
EUHAC brings together non-profit health expert voices in the EU representing diverse constituencies of the health sector, including doctors and other health care professionals, scientists, public health experts and groups, respiratory or cancer patients and health insurance funds. We stand for urgently needed science-based policy change in the EU that prioritises prevention: prevention of lives lost, new cases of disease, health care costs and increasing socio-economic inequalities.
Air pollution weighs heavily on the health of people in the EU and the economy; 97% of the urban population breathes air that is considered unhealthy, resulting in hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and hundreds of billions of euros in health costs each year. Air pollution affects everyone and those most vulnerable disproportionally, such as those already ill, children, elderly, pregnant women, and those facing health inequalities.
We look forward to supporting you to swiftly lessen people’s suffering, prevent disease and achieve economic savings.
Yours sincerely,
- Anne Stauffer, Deputy Director – Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL)
- Dr Christiaan Keijzer, President – Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME),
- Dr Wendy Yared, Director – Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL)
- Christine Strous, Board Member – European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations (EFA)
- Dimitris Kontopidis, Chair – European Lung Foundation (ELF)
- Dr. Milka Sokolović, Director General – European Public Health Alliance (EPHA)
- Prof. Barbara Hoffmann, Advocacy Council Chair – European Respiratory Society (ERS)
- Xavier Brenez, Chief Executive Officer – Independent Health Insurance Funds (Mutualités Libres)