Round Table:"Impact of Cars in Health and Road Safety”

13/04/2016

GAP Institute in cooperation with Kosovo Civil Society Consortium for Sustainable Development (KOSID) organized a round table entitled “ Impact of Cars in Health and Road Safety”

The main focus of the discussion at this roundtable was the impact of the governmental decision for the removal of restrictions on the import on old cars on environment, health and road safety. GAP Institute at this round table also presented the policy brief entitled “The Economy of Cars in Kosovo – an analysis of governmental policies for importation, registration and control of cars”.

According to this policy brief, after the governmental decision on removal of all age restrictions on the import of used cars, it has followed an increase in the number of old cars in Kosovo. In the past five years over 100,000 old cars have been imported and only 6,000 new. This has increased the average of age of cars that circulate in Kosovo. Jeton Mehmeti, Research Director at GAP Institute said that “currently the average age of cars in Kosovo is 18 years, which is about ten years higher than in the European Union, where the average is 8.6 years”. It is disturbing that this governmental decision has not been followed by higher standards of technical control. Rather, the control of gas emissions in the air in Kosovo is not implemented. This decision and the lack of control opposes the governmental Strategy on Air Quality which was adopted in 2011, said Mehmeti.

Lutfi Zharku, Minister of Infrastructure, said that “technical control centers possess the needed technology to control the emission of gases, but the emission of gases influences not only from the cars technology but also from the fuel quality that we use.  He also said that the draft law that is on the process foresees strict procedures for old cars and the cars that are out of usage, while regarding the road safety technical controls and measures for obtaining driving licenses will be strengthened”.

Representative of the National Institute of Public Health, Dr. Tahire Gjergji, said that “the main air polluters in Kosovo are industry and traffic”. Traffic has become a serious problem, especially after the government’s decision.  She said that respiratory diseases lead the list of non contagious diseases, while cardiovascular diseases lead the list that causes death.  These diseases are caused by environmental pollution.

The Mayor of Prishtina, Shpend Ahmeti told that in the capital city of Prishtina are placed six measuring points that show in real time the air pollution.  From these data, it has been seen that the level of sulfur peroxide found in fuels, is quite worrying.

While the representative from Environmental Protection Agency in Kosovo, Tafe Veselaj said “legislation for the environmental protection is solidly completed, while the legislation for air and water protection is still stumble.” However, he added the with the National Plan for SAA implementation transportation is also included where it is stated that environmental worsening must stop urgently conform EU standards.

The roundtable continued with discussions by the participants and issued a series of recommendations for environmental improvement and road safety in traffic.  The implementation of EU standards for the import of used cars, similar with Macedonia which does not allow the import of cars under Euro 4 standard as well as the implementation of Administrative Instruction regarding the emission of gases from technical control centers and implementation of attractive projects for the promotion of public transport and minimizing presence of vehicles in the capital; apply rigorous quality oil control and strict procedures for issuing driving license  were some of the recommendations that emerged during the discussion. 

To read the policy brief “The Economy of Cars in Kosovo – an analysis of governmental policies for importation, registration and control of cars” please click HERE.