LONDON: Environment Secretary Michael Gove has been asked to attend a meeting of the European Commission in Brussels, to explain why the UK still breaches legal air pollution limits.

Britain is one of the five member states that have received a “final warning” from the commission after persistently surpassing limits for nitrogen dioxide levels.

The meeting which is set to take place at the end of the month, will be an opportunity for Gove and other European politicians to discuss air quality and how to protect “a basic quality of life” for European citizens.

Poor air quality resulting from pollutants including nitrogen dioxide have been linked with deadly health conditions such as heart disease and lung cancer.

Experts have estimated air pollution kills 50,000 people annually in the UK alone.

Last year the nation was warned it would face a European Court of Justice case if the nitrogen dioxide problem was not dealt with.

Environment ministers from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were also called to attend the meeting on Jan.30.

All the invited ministers represent countries that have been violating air quality limits for key pollutants.

The invitations came from EU environment commissioner Karmenu Vella, who will chair the meeting.

“Every year, more than 400,000 Europeans die prematurely as a consequence of poor air quality,” Vella wrote in a blog post explaining his decision to call the ministers to Brussels.

“Our job is simple. It is to help reduce and ultimately do away with these numbers.”

Vella emphasised the importance of EU member states sticking to the limits they have agreed to and stated the measures already in place in those states will not be enough to meet existing targets.

“It is the improvements, not the process, that interests Europeans,” he wrote. “It is no use telling the parent of a 7-year-old child with chronic bronchitis that things will improve by 2030. Much less telling the daughter of a 70-year-old woman with COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] that the air quality will be better in 10 years’ time.”