ActiveWatch: Introduction of pollution tax in Bucharest could reduce air pollution fast

The introduction of a pollution tax in Bucharest could reduce air pollution fast, and could make the European Court of Justice not to sanction Romania for the fact that the Bucharest authorities do not take measures to protect the inhabitants against this phenomenon, consider OPTAR, ActiveWatch, CeRe and Greenpeace. 

According to an ActiveWatch release, these four organizations on Thursday asked the Bucharest City Hall to hold as many meetings as necessary so that any interested person could express their views regarding the proposed normative act. 

"The organizations OPTAR, ActiveWatch, CeRe and Greenpeace support the proposal of introducing a pollution tax in Bucharest, considering that this is a measure that will lead to a significant improvement of the air quality in Bucharest. However, for such a measure to be successful, it is important to underline the weaknesses of the project: communication, discrimination, sloppy work and incoherence in the application of the measures established by experts", the release reads. 

In the opinion of the four organizations, the most serious mistake of the project is related to communication. Thus, even though the problems generated by pollution have been known for years, they have not been constantly communicated to the public to make them aware. Organizations believe that the polluter should pay the same tax, regardless of where the vehicle was registered, so that any form of discrimination is eliminated. 

In their opinion, the proposal of a decision of only four pages cannot offer solutions to different complex situations, which suppose the regulation of the circulation in a metropolis of almost 2 million inhabitants.