The European Parliament adopted by 624 votes to 21, with 34 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the draft Council decision on the acceptance of the Amendments to the 1998 Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
Following the recommendation from its Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, Parliament gave its consent to acceptance of the Amendments to the Protocol.
To recall, the 1979 Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution is intended to protect the human environment against air pollution.
The 1998 Aarhus Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants (the Protocol) aims to control, reduce or eliminate discharges, emissions and losses of POPs. It requires Parties to eliminate the production and use of relevant substances, restrict the use of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCH) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and reduce their total annual emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dioxins/furans (PCDD/PCDF) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) below their levels in 1990 or an alternative year between 1985 and 1995.