European authorities held Spain accountable this week for repeated violations of the EU air quality directive. The Court of Justice of the European Union concluded that Spain has not kept annual nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exposure within the set limits in Barcelona and the Community of Madrid, and since 2010 in Vallès-Baix Llobregat. The court added that Spain did not commit to timely and effective measures in its air quality plans to keep NO2 breaches as short as possible. [Attribution: European Commission]
The Brussels body overturned one point in its case. It found that the 2018 data for El Vallès did not show a sustained breach, since the annual NO2 limit of 40 μg/m3 was not exceeded that year. The EU thus concluded that there was no ongoing systematic breach in that specific area since 2018. [Attribution: European Commission]
Air quality plans
The dispute began in 2015 but intensified after a 2019 decision by the European Commission confirming Spain’s breach before the CJEU. Brussels reported persistent high NO2 levels in three zones: Barcelona, Vallès-Baix Llobregat, and the Madrid metropolitan region. The EU pointed to data showing that NO2 values, legally capped since 1 January 2010, were repeatedly exceeded in these areas. The annual reports submitted to Brussels indicated that from 2010 to 2018 the specified NO2 limits were consistently exceeded in the three zones. [Attribution: European Commission]
The Commission stated that EU air quality rules require member states to adopt plans that reduce overshoots as quickly as possible when limits are surpassed. Spain was criticized for not providing adequate and timely measures in its adopted plans to ensure that any exceedance period would be as short as possible. [Attribution: European Commission]
The Barcelona City Council anticipated a negative ruling, even though a local climate and ecological transition official spoke earlier about improving air quality. Data from the ASPB showed a continuing decline in NO2 in central Barcelona, with reductions at major transit hubs of about 31% from 2015 to 2022. [Attribution: ASPB data]
Cleaning the air remains a top priority for the European Commission. A recent proposal aims to tighten the rules and cut premature deaths from main pollutants by more than three quarters over the next decade. The plan targets fine particles (PM2.5) and related respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses. [Attribution: European Commission]