The Commission said that it was "concerned" after the Parliament
voted on 26 September to weaken a proposed directive on ambient
air quality which is the cornerstone of its clean-air strategy.
New proposals were put forward by the Commission last year to
cut emissions of fine-dust particles, ozone and other air
pollutants harmful to human health. At the time, Brussels
estimated that the measures could reduce the number of premature
deaths "from 370,000 a year in 2000 to 230,000 in 2020" for an
estimated cost of 7.1 billion euro per annum. Potential benefits
in terms of reduced sickness and hospitalisation costs were
valued at tens of billion of euro per year. Environment
Commissioner Stavros Dimas said that he was "disappointed" with
the Parliament's amendments which he said "appear to contradict"
the objective of protecting citizens' health "by weakening the
legislation we have proposed in some key respects". Dimas said
that he was concerned in particular with two of the following
amendments: - One extending