"Every year, an astonishing number of citizens' lives are cut short because of air pollution. And yet, today in 2018, 400,000 people are still dying prematurely every year due to a massive, widespread failure to address the problem."
These words come from the statement ofEuropean Commissioner of Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, on Tuesday, following the air quality Ministerial meeting in Brussels. Vella summoned representatives from the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. According to the European Commission, these members are not showing satisfying progress when it comes to their fulfilment of the legislation on ambient air quality and cleaner air. This legislation sets air quality limits which cannot be exceeded anywhere in the EU and obliges member states to limit the exposure of citizens to harmful air pollutants.
Norbert Kurilla, the Slovak State Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, who faced criticism in Brussels on Thursday, believes that the country is undertaking concrete measures when it comes to improvement and that the overall situation is getting better. Tomáš Ferenčák, the spokesperson from the Department of Environment:
"We had seventeen non-conforming regions in 2004; in 2016 we have twelve of these remaining."
Alarming levels of pollution remain in the towns and surroundings of Jelšava, Vrútky, Prešov or Martin, with the majority of Slovakia's polluted air comprising small particulate matter stemming from home heating. The State Secretary presented new measures in Brussels as part of the Amendment of the Air protection Act, which entered into force in December 2017. This introduces air emissions zones in towns. The Ministry also envisages to support the replacement of heating units and the stricter control of heating materials. State Secretary Norbert Kurilla:
"Thus we can markedly improve the air quality in towns when talking about the nitrous oxide emissions, but also when it comes to local polluted sites."
The Department of Environment is also working on a new strategy to tackle air pollution that should be discussed this April. However, Daniel Lešinský from the Centre for sustainable alternatives, an NGO presently focused on the project titled Clean Air, is missing a conceptual overall document:
"We have several billions from EU funds. We have the state budget as well as the environmental fund. All these only partially reflect a solution for the mentioned problem."
