The air pollution crisis caused by the manipulation of car manufacturers' emission rules has left cities no choice but to start bans on diesel cars: Paris, Madrid, Oslo, Amsterdam, Athens and Rome are among those who plan
similar prohibitions. This leads to a tendency to get rid of diesel cars in these countries.

Only last year Bulgaria imported more than 100,000 second-hand cars from the EU-28 countries, over one third of which have highly polluting diesel engines (table above)

The flow of inexpensive, unmodified, used diesel engines will simply displace the air pollution problem to the east, and the failure to resolve it, deepens the air quality problem in Eastern Europe.

There is an obvious need for joint European measures to avoid dumping of polluting diesel cars in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. This is contrary to the principle of the single market and the spirit of its product rules - all EU citizens have the same right to clean air. The flow of old polluting diesel engines must be limited in a way that protects the environment and public health and complies with the rules of the single market.