Thousands of vehicles in FBiH fail to meet environmental standards

Vehicle testing has shown that more than 85,000 motor vehicles registered in the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBiH) do not meet the environmental norms defined by law, the Ministry of Traffic and Communication of the FBiH said. The ministry statement said that 86,067 motor vehicles have been found to be under those environmental standards since the so-called eco tests were introduced.

Before the introduction of the eco tests on the basis of European Union standards, just 90 vehicles were found to be faulty in terms of environmental pollution norms in 2015 with the number rising to 131 in 2016 and to 78,150 in the first 10 months following the introduction of the eco tests, the statement said.

According to the latest Ministry of Traffic and Communication data, a total of 86,067 tested motor vehicles failed to meet the environmental standards under FBiH law.

The ministry said owners of vehicles who do not meet the environmental norms will not be able to register them after the year 2020 and warned that the law already allows a ban on vehicles which fail to meet those standards when pollution is extreme. It recalled that the Sarajevo city authorities imposed a non-selective driving ban because of pollution in the winter of 2016-2017 based on even and odd license plate numbers.

The ministry recalled that the eco tests were introduced as a measure to improve air quality and protect the environment in accord with EU Directives and to lower the emissions of gases from motor vehicles. It added that those emissions contributed significantly to what it called enormous air pollution in a number of towns and cities, endangering the health of the population.

The European Environment Agency said in its 2016 report that around 44,000 people die every year in Bosnia-Herzegovina because of various forms of pollution.

FBiH Minister of the Environment and Tourism Edita Djapo said in August 2017 that experts have assessed that motor vehicles account for about 40 percent of the overall air pollution in the Federation.

She said control and monitoring regulations were insufficiently strict and that the tests for emissions of vehicles were of low quality, adding that inadequate public transport and low quality fuels contribute to pollution.