It is almost summer, time when the European Institutions' activities are not as intense as the rest of the year. But before going off on holidays, Members of the European Parliament's Environment, Public Health & Food Safety Committee have an important vote to take. The EU is currently looking to set new limits for air pollution emissions between now and 2030. These limits have a huge impact on the air that all cyclists & citizens in Europe breathe for the next 15 years.

In 3 weeks’ time, on Wednesday 15th July, the European Parliament will vote on the NEC directive [1]: this vote will influence the EU position on new air quality targets. The NEC directive can save thousands of lives, if it is strong and ambitious enough! The negotiations that will follow later this year will be tough and there is a risk the proposal will be watered down, so the more MEPs support the upcoming vote, the more difficult it will be to lower the targets afterwards. ECF, together with other NGO’s are trying to convince as many MEPs as possible to vote in favour of this proposal. The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) has created an online, interactive tool called the Air-o-Meter which assesses the impact of the different scenarios on human health, the economy and the environment. In the next days, ECF will help the European Environmental Bureau to get as much support from MEPs to secure an ambitious proposal from the EU Parliament on the NEC directive.