Bad air quality criticised by the EU

Slovakia is one of the four countries with the worst air quality within the European Union (EU), stated the European Commission (EC) in its regular evaluation report on Slovakia 2020. "The main culprit is heating. We still have about 100,000-120,000 households in Slovakia with old boilers. Some people burn everything they can - from solid fuels to waste - and these are the biggest polluters," said Lívia Vašáková, head of the economic analysis team of the EC representation in Slovakia. According to the report, air pollution from solid fuel burning and rising emissions from transport pose a serious health concern. In addition, industry and power generation are the second largest sources of particulate matter emitted in Slovakia and a major regional emitter of sulphur while the agricultural sector is the source of ammonia, the report states.