Poland’s Climate and Environment Minister Anna Moskwa and Czechia’s Environment Minister Peter Hladík have signed a joint declaration confirming the “readiness” of both sides to implement measures to limit the cross-border transmission of air pollutants, Polish Climate and Environment Ministry announced on Wednesday (15 November).
“Taking into account many years of very good neighbourly cooperation between our countries, we are ready to continue building our future relations with the Czech Republic on mutual trust. We have no doubt that cross-border environmental policy should be conducted in the spirit of solidarity,” said Minister Moskwa.
Polish-Czech cooperation in improving cross-border air quality has been taking place since 2009, said Minister Moskwa. “Together with the Czech minister, we agreed that it is necessary to introduce new joint initiatives that would help take existing cooperation to a new level. Today’s ceremony is another step towards achieving the overriding common goal, which is to improve the quality of life of societies on both sides of the border,” she added.
Czech Minister Petr Hladík emphasised that it is necessary to coordinate actions on both sides of the border to reduce air pollution. “Cross-border air pollution is a huge and so far insufficiently solved problem in Europe, which does not only concern the Czech Republic or Poland, but occurs throughout the EU. However, today we and Poland have made it clear that we are not indifferent to cross-border air pollution and we are determined to jointly contribute to reducing it,” he said.
The declaration has confirmed both partners’ commitment to implement key actions indicated in the strategic instruments of both countries, such as the Polish “National Air Pollution Reduction Programme.”
“In the Czech Republic, the Moravian-Silesian region is the most burdened by cross-border transport and, together with the Polish part of Silesia, it is one of the most polluted regions in the EU. I am therefore very pleased that we have managed to identify key instruments and steps that should contribute to reducing the health impacts on the population on both sides of the border,” the Czech minister added.
