Dirty diesels heading East
With drivers ditching their diesel cars in view of an increasing number of city bans and low-emissions zones in Western Europe, many of these dirty cars now end up in Central & Eastern EU Member States.
This means the air quality problems will be exported, not solved, thus deepening the East-West divide that already exists on air quality in Europe.
Bulgaria is case in point, as it risks being swamped with the grossly polluting diesels, as Western drivers elsewhere turn away from the polluting cars. As the country holds the Presidency of the EU, it has declared tackling air pollution as a priority for its term.
The new data shows that over 35,000 dirty diesels were exported to Bulgaria in 2017 alone, emitting more than 12 times the allowed limits.
