European Commission commits new funds to air clean-up

The European Commission will commit €50 billion (£43.5 billion) to energy, transport and digital projects in an attempt to boost air clean-up efforts across the continent.

Leaders have revealed the huge sum will be used to "fill the missing links in Europe's energy, transport and digital backbone".

It is hoped that the move will help reduce Europe's energy dependency and encourage the use of power generated from renewable sources.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso also suggested that the infrastructure investment had the potential to create numerous new jobs.

"These proposals will help to build the roads, railways, energy grids and pipelines, and broadband networks that are so important to our citizens and businesses," he commented.

The lion's share of the funding (€31.7 billion) will be spent on the transport sector, while €9.1 billion has been set aside for the energy industry.

Last week, the European Environment Agency insisted the EU was on target to meet its 2020 carbon reduction targets, despite seeing pollution increase in 2010.

Posted by Claire Manning