The Socialist Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo said on Wednesday she has launched two appeals to the European court to challenge the decision, confirmed on 26th April the European Commission to increase the permitted levels of diesel emissions.

The Socialist Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo said on Wednesday launched two appeals to the European court to challenge the decision, confirmed on 26 April the European Commission to increase the permitted levels of diesel emissions.

Ms. Hidalgo announced launch an action for annulment and an action for damages in the form of a civil action before the European Court of Justice, appeals to which it invites 19 other mayors of major European cities to join.

Twenty cities including Paris, Madrid, Athens, Milan, Stockholm, Vienna and Amsterdam, signed on March 16 a petition – since supported by almost 128,000 people – against the decision of the European Commission to grant a “license to pollute “by increasing by 110% the permitted levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx, mainly emitted by diesel).

This is a “scandalous denial after the Volkswagen scandal,” while “the priority of Europe must be to protect the health of citizens and to fight against climate change,” then stated Ms. Hidalgo.

“Despite this significant mobilization of elected representatives and citizens, easing vehicle emission thresholds was confirmed on 26 April by a publication in the Official Journal of the European Union,” said a statement from the municipality of Paris.

“Together with my European counterparts, I am determined to act by all means at our disposal, for the European Commission hear our concerns,” wrote the mayor.

These remedies are contesting the European decision on the substance and form, pointing to the illegality of Regulation which “violates the maximum NOx limits currently in force ‘and the procedure used to” pass this heavy act of consequences , discreetly”.

Ms. Hidalgo called for the mobilization of citizens and the state support. The Minister of the Environment Ségolène Royal had supported the petition signed, besides Paris, for the following cities: Athens, Barcelona, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Copenhagen, Valletta, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Madrid, Milan, Nicosia, Oslo, Riga , Rotterdam, Sofia, Stockholm, Vienna and Warsaw, representing 25 million people.

The Mayor of Paris is running for president of the C40 (Cities Climate Leadership Group), a network of cities which brings together 83 of the biggest cities in the world (600 million people and a quarter of the world economy) to fight against the deregulation climate.

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