The European Commission has decided this Thursday to bring Spain to the Court of Justice of the European Union (TEU) for the high levels of pollution in Madrid, Barcelona and Baix Llobregat. From Brussels they have verified that in recent months the measures taken by Manuela Carmena and Ada Colau have not served to alleviate the pollution and therefore have taken up the sanctioning file. The Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, has indicated at a press conference that “the most recent data on the quality of air offered by Spain confirm the systematic non-compliance with European standards on nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels, rules that have been legally binding since 2010 “. 9,000 deaths This is a regulation, as the Commission recalls in a press release,” legally binding since 2010 ”. According to the European Environment Agency, in Spain almost 9,000 premature deaths are attributable to NO2 annually. In addition, they indicate that air pollution continues to be “the main environmental health problem in the EU, since, according to estimates, around 400,000 premature deaths are attributable to air pollution annually.” They argue that air pollution causes serious diseases such as asthma, cardiovascular problems and lung cancer. According to various studies, poor air quality causes direct economic costs in excess of EUR 20 billion per year.For its part, the new Madrid City Council with José Luis Martínez-Almeida has advanced that they are already working on a new plan that is effective in improving air quality. Along with Spain, Bulgaria will also have to answer to the high European court on this issue.In this case, for not respecting the limit values for sulfur dioxide (SO2). This judicial process can take several years and there are no precedents to estimate how many million euros this sanction could entail for Spain.
