EU court threat over air pollution

FRANCE may be referred to European Court of Justice if it does not act over levels of air pollution, the European Commission has warned.

In a statement on its website, the Commission said that France has not complied with European rules limiting levels of fine dust particles in the air, which can cause asthma, cardiovascular problems and lung cancer.

“If France fails to act within two months, the Commission may take the matter to the EU Court of Justice,” the Commission’s statement said.

It said that maximum daily limits for PM10 particles are being exceeded in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Grenoble, Nice and Toulon, the Vallée de l'Arve, Douai-Béthune-Valenciennes, the Zone Urbaine Régionale of PACA, and Martinique.

“The Commission considers that France has failed to take measures that should have been in place since 2005 to protect citizens' health, and is asking it to take forward-looking, speedy and effective action to keep the period of non-compliance as short as possible,” the statement continued.

And it added that a letter warning that further action was possible had been sent to officials in France in February this year.

The threat of legal action comes a month after a pollution spike forced authorities in the capital to instigate traffic controls by implementing a partial ban on cars travelling in the city. According to one pollution monitor, Paris was - briefly - the most polluted city in the world,

Photo: Alberto Hernández