Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, this directive is the second daughter directive within the framework of the directive on ambient air quality assessment and management and the proposal is part of an integrated raft of measures aimed at combating air pollution. I think we all agree that the people of Europe should be able to breathe cleaner air and indeed the latest publication by the European Environment Agency states that the level of air pollution in most cities poses a threat to health and that almost 40 million people in the 115 largest European cities are exposed to at least one pollutant which exceeds the WHO air quality guidelines. Despite political initiatives aimed at reducing pollution and improving air quality, it is assumed that passenger transport needs will increase drastically over the next ten years and that the number of vehicles will increase by 25%, increasing air pollution still further. In a report this year, the WHO comes to the conclusion that air pollution caused by traffic kills even more people than car accidents and that the economic costs are high. It is therefore important to reduce the level of air pollution, to limit the consequences for particularly vulnerable groups and to ease the burden on the health systems. The important point about this second daughter directive is that it is the first time that a limit value has been set for benzene and carbon monoxide in the EU. This is an important step, I would even go so far as to say that it is a milestone in air quality legislation now that, for the first time, a limit value has been set for benzene, a carcinogenic substance which can cause leukaemia. We know that petrol and oil are sources of benzene and 80% to 85% of the benzene in the European Union comes from the combustion of petrol by road traffic. Until now there has been no threshold value as far as health risks are concerned and therefore no level of benzene is free of risk. The precautionary principle in the EC Treaty makes a limit value with an extremely low risk of illness compulsory, however. The Commission has proposed an annual limit value of 5 micrograms per cubic metre of air for benzene, to be attained by 2010. This is fully endorsed by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection. However, the Committee on the Environment does not support the Commission’s intention to give carte blanche in the form of unlimited derogations by proposing that, in the event of so-called socio-economic problems, countries may apply for a transition period of five years, which can then be extended for a further five years. The Committee on the Environment expects the directive to be properly implemented and proposes that no more than one five-year derogation should be allowed, during which a ten microgram limit must be observed. Other amendments have been tabled in plenary, coupling this derogation to other conditions in order to ensure – and this must be made quite clear – that these regulations are not a loophole for non-transposition of the directive. The Committee on the Environment therefore makes it quite clear that it cannot be assumed that a twin-track environmental policy will be operated. I think that it is extremely important, also in view of enlargement, that we set a good example and do not send out the wrong signal to applicant countries. The Committee on the Environment would therefore like to make it clear in its proposal, which is more precise and more strict as far as derogations are concerned, that there can be no question of a twin-track environmental policy and that the aim must be to achieve a high level of protection for everyone in the EU. The Committee also proposes that the public should be better informed in future and that the proposed measures should be extended still further by other measures. I think that if we can manage to get the Commission to support the Committee’s proposals, then we will have reached a real milestone on the way to better air quality and we will have helped considerably to make it clear that carcinogenic substances have lost in the environmental stakes. We want to improve the air quality in Europe, thereby making a major contribution to health protection.

Political group: Verts-ALE