2023-11-07 18:38:31
“A historic ruling, a new and fundamental step for the definitive recognition of the right to be born and live in a healthy environment”. Thus the president of Consulcesi Massimo Tortorella comments on the appeal presented before the Court of Strasbourg by some Italian citizens which ended in recent days with Italy’s condemnation. “With this ruling”, continues Tortorella, the European Court “is telling us something innovative and very important: ‘we must not wait to get sick or even die of cancer or other diseases related to pollution, but we have the right to live in a healthy environment now; and if this does not happen, the responsibility lies mainly with the institutions”. The ruling (Edu Court, Section I, 19 October 2023 n. 35648/10) refers to the appeal presented by residents of some cities in Campania affected since 1994 by a serious waste emergency that had lasted over time, causing serious inconvenience to the entire population of the areas affected”.
From Europe “concrete, strong and clear messages continue to arrive to national institutions, called to take on the responsibility of guaranteeing every citizen the fundamental right to live in a healthy environment – continues the president of the main legal network, with twenty years of experience in the field of community violations – It was not necessary, to condemn Italy, to demonstrate the existence of damages in the specific case, but numerous and authoritative scientific studies were brought to support the appellants’ thesis which highlighted all the potential dangers that an exposure prolonged exposure to polluting factors can cause.”
The path that the European institutions have taken to make the environmental protection policies implemented by the States increasingly effective is clear – we read in a note – This sentence marks a fundamental moment in attributing the responsibilities of the Institutions, even if no concrete damage to health is found. The institutions are, in fact, obliged to guarantee and protect the quality of life of all citizens. “A positive message also comes from Europe for our 600 thousand applicants for the Aria Pulita collective action – underlines Tortorella – It is no longer just a question of obtaining compensation for the time in which one was exposed to polluted air, but also of induce institutions to implement policies aimed at making the environment in which we live healthier” he concludes.
To join the collective action – concludes the note – it is sufficient to demonstrate, through a historical certificate of residence, that from 2008-2018 you have resided in one or more of the 3,384 Italian municipalities and cities eligible for the Aria Pulita collective action and the same for the which the European Court of Justice fined Italy for violating the threshold values for fine particles (Pm10) and nitrogen dioxide (No2).
In total there are over 40 million people who can request, through the legal initiative of Consulcesi, compensation for breathing unhealthy air. To find out if and how to participate in the collective action, Consulcesi makes the Aria Pulita website available: www.aria-pulita.it.
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