Opinion on a proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (recast)

27.6.2023

Mr Pascal Canfin

Chair

Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

BRUSSELS

Subject: Opinion on a proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe (recast) (COM(2022)0542 – C90364/2022 – 2022/0347(COD))

Dear Mr Chair,

The Committee on Legal Affairs has examined the proposal referred to above pursuant to Rule 110 on recasting of Parliament's Rules of Procedure.

Paragraph 3 of that Rule reads as follows:

“If the committee responsible for legal affairs considers that the proposal does not entail any substantive changes other than those identified as such in the proposal, it shall inform the committee responsible for the subject matter thereof.

In such a case, over and above the conditions laid down in Rules 180 and 181, amendments shall be admissible within the committee responsible for the subject-matter only if they concern those parts of the proposal which contain changes.

However, amendments to parts of the proposal which remain unchanged may, by way of exception and on a case-by-case basis, be accepted by the Chair of the committee responsible for the subject matter if he or she considers that this is necessary for pressing reasons relating to the internal logic of the text or because the amendments are inextricably linked to other admissible amendments. Such reasons must be stated in a written justification to the amendments.”

Following the here attached opinion of the Consultative Working Party of the Legal Services of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission, which has examined the recast proposal, and in keeping with the recommendations of the Rapporteur, the Committee on Legal Affairs considers that the proposal in question does not include any substantive changes other than those identified as such and that, as regards the codification of the unchanged provisions of the earlier act with those substantive amendments, the proposal contains a straightforward codification of the existing text, without any change in its substance.

In conclusion, at its meeting of 27 June 2023, the Committee on Legal Affairs unanimously decided to recommend that the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, as the committee responsible, proceed with the above proposal in accordance with Rule 110.

Yours sincerely,

Adrián Vázquez Lázara

Encl.: Opinion of the Consultative Working Party.

Annex

Brussels, 7 June 2023

OPINION

FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

THE COUNCIL

THE COMMISSION

Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe

COM(2022)0542 of 26.10.2022 – 2022/0347(COD)

Having regard to the Inter-institutional Agreement of 28 November 2001 on a more structured use of the recasting technique for legal acts, and in particular to point 9 thereof, the Consultative Working Party consisting of the respective legal services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission met on 4 and 12 April 2023 for the purpose of examining the aforementioned proposal submitted by the Commission.

At those meetings, an examination of the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council recasting Directive 2004/107/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2004 relating to arsenic, cadmium, mercury, nickel and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air and Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe resulted in the Consultative Working Party’s establishing, by common accord, as follows.

1. The following should have been marked with the grey-shaded type generally used for identifying substantive amendments:

- in recital 9, the replacement of the term ‘modelling techniques’ with the term ‘modelling applications’;

- the entire text of recital 29 of Directive 2008/50/EC;

- the entire text of recital 25 of Directive 2008/50/EC;

- in Article 4, point 26, the deletion of the words ‘which is not to be exceeded’;

- in Article 4, point 31, the deletion of the words ‘fixed on the basis of scientific knowledge’;

- in Article 4, point 32, the adding of the words ‘and vulnerable groups’;

- in Article 9(5), the deletion of the words ‘and the number of sampling points’;

- in Article 9(6), the deletion of the word ‘or’;

- in Article 11(1), the deletion of the words ‘and criteria’;

- in Article 13(2), the adding of the words ‘as laid down in Section 2, Point B, of Annex I’;

- in Article 13(5), the deletion of the words ‘for PM2,5’;

- in Article 13(6), the deletion of the words ‘shall apply’;

- in Article 18(l)(a), the replacement of the reference made to ‘Article 23’ with a reference to ‘Article 19(4)’ and the adding of the words ‘and meeting the requirements listed in Article 19(5) to (7)’;

- in Article 19(5), fourth subparagraph, the deletion of the words ‘or implemented’ and ‘and implement’ and the adding of the words ‘or air quality standards’;

- in Article 21(1), first subparagraph, the adding of the word ‘ozone’;

- in Article 23(2), introductory wording, the deletion of the word ‘nine’;

- in Article 23(3), the deletion of the words ‘on a provisional basis’;

2. Article 15(2) of Directive 2008/50/EC should have been present in the draft recast text. The proposed deletion of that paragraph should have been identified as a formal adaptation.

3. Article 17(2) and (3) of Directive 2008/50/EC should have been present in the draft recast text. The proposed deletion of those paragraphs should have been identified as a substantive amendment.

In consequence, examination of the proposal has enabled the Consultative Working Party to conclude, without dissent, that the proposal does not comprise any substantive amendments other than those identified as such. The Working Party also concluded, as regards the codification of the unchanged provisions of the earlier act with those substantive amendments, that the proposal contains a straightforward codification of the existing legal text, without any change in its substance.

F. DREXLER E. FINNEGAN D. CALLEJA CRESPO

Jurisconsult Jurisconsult Director-General