Ecology, Estonia, EU – Baltic States

"Many European countries are failing to comply with international and European standards on air quality. Moreover, many governments have failed to take effective action to improve air quality and hence to protect their citizens' health. These are two of the findings of a joint audit performed by 14 European audit offices, including the Estonian National Audit Office. Only Estonia was found to be in compliance with all the relevant EU standards," it is written in the joint audit report.

The joint audit uncovered wide discrepancies between the 15 countries covered by the audit. At one end of the scale was Estonia, which was found to comply with all the relevant standards. At the other end were countries that the European Commission recently brought before the European Court of Justice on account of their continued failure to meet the limit values.

There are no significant problems regarding ambient air quality in Estonia, and the air in Estonia is among the cleanest compared to other European countries. During the last three years, 2014-2016, a few pollutants have exceeded the limit values, such as benso(a)pyrene and hydrogen sulfide, but the problems are only local in nature, regarding, for instance, stove heating-related problems in Tartu and oil shale industry-related problems in Kohtla-Jarve.

Regardless, Estonia needs to keep working to improve its ambient air, because although the country currently meets most objectives, EU requirements are becoming stricter and new, more ambitious goals are being set for reducing emissions, the report says.

In Estonia, industry and energy have a significant impact on air quality, whereas the effect of transport is average and agriculture and households affect air quality only to a small extent.

The joint report prepared by the Netherlands Court of Audit and the Supreme Audit Office of Poland, is a comprehensive summary of 16 audits on air quality performed by the European Court of Auditors and by 15 supreme audit institutions in Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Netherlands.

The audit was initiated by the Working Group on Environmental Auditing of the European Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (EUROSAI WGEA). The working group is chaired by the Estonian National Audit Office.