EU policymakers on Wednesday unveiled a draft law to tackle air pollution, which every year is linked to 400,000 premature deaths in Europe and costs of tens of billions of euros.
The proposals include new limits on emissions from power plants and industry, as well as measures to make member states comply with existing rules on limiting pollutants associated with asthma, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
So far, many member states are failing to enforce existing EU air quality standards, even though the rules are less rigorous than those set by the World Health Organization.
Environmental campaigners say the European Commission, the EU executive, is not being bold enough in tackling a problem linked to more untimely deaths than road accidents, as well as countless sick days and impaired quality of life.
The Commission has said the eventual aim is to raise standards to WHO levels, but it has to balance costs to industry with benefits in fragile economic times.
It puts the direct costs to society, including damage to crops and buildings, from air pollution at around 23 billion euros ($31.6 billion) per year.
The health benefits alone of the proposals will save society 40 billion euros per year, 12 times the cost of pollution abatement, which is expected to reach 3.4 billion euros per year in 2030, the Commission said.
The Commission calculates that adopting its proposed measures would reduce the annual death toll from pollution-related disease by 58,000 by 2030, as well as protecting fragile ecosystems and boosting the clean-technology industry.