Green 10 open letter to VP Timmermans: “Do not kill laws crucial for our health, environment and the economy”

The 10 leading environmental NGOs in Europe appeal to Vice President Timmermans not to sink the air and waste packages: “Polluton kills 58,000 persons every year. Are they not European citizens? Shouldn’t the Commission protect their interest too? ”

After the leaks of the 2015 Working Plan of Juncker’s Commission, appeared on the Press today, the 10 leading environmental NGOs in Europe, the Green 10, have written an open letter to Vice President Timmermans expressing their grave concerns.

Angelo Caserta, Director of Birdlife Europe and current Chair of the Green 10, states: “We are deeply concerned that environmental protection and sustainability is not only going to be absent in the Commission’s Workplan for 2015 but that Vice-President Timmermans is even planning to withdraw two recently proposed pieces of legislation that would bring major benefits for citizens’ health, the environment as well as for Europe’s economy – the air package and circular economy package“.

“By withdrawing the air quality proposal – Birdlife’s Caserta added – the European Commission would miss the opportunity to prevent as many as 58,000 premature deaths per year that result from air pollution, when the current toll is 400,000 premature deaths per year. We would also miss a huge economic benefit to the European economy as the air quality directive would deliver health benefits of €40-140 billion in avoided external costs and provide about €3 billion in direct benefits due to higher productivity of the workforce, lower healthcare costs, higher crop yields and less damage to buildings”.

The Green 10 letter also states: “Withdrawing the circular economy package would also go against the number one priority of the European Commission. Europe would fail to create as many as 180,000 new jobs through turning waste into a resource while making business more competitive and reducing demand for and dependency from costly scarce resources from outside the continent”.

NOTE

Link to Green 10 Open Letter

http://www.green10.org/publications/?logout=1