Greece is referred to the European Court for the air pollution of Athens
The European Commission is appealing to the EU Court against Greece for exceeding annual levels of nitrogen dioxide in Athens.
As stated in the communication of the European Court of Justice, Directive 2008/50 / EC on air quality sets out objectives for air quality, for the improvement of human health and for the quality of the environment. To this end, Member States should limit citizens’ exposure, inter alia, to nitrogen dioxide (NOD).
Based on the annual air quality reports of Greece for the period 2010-2014, the Commission considered that the forecast limit value of NOD in the zone EL0003 (Athens) was not observed and that no air quality plan was issued to ensure compliance with the NOD limit values as soon as possible in the same zone.
The history
In January 2019, he sent a warning letter to Greece and, following the unsatisfactory response of the latter, it was decided to send a reasoned opinion in February 2020. In particular, the air quality reports submitted by the Greek authorities for the years 2017 – 2018 confirmed that the violation continued.
Subsequently, Greece, after responding by letter in June 2020 to its reasoned opinion, notified the reports for the years 2015-2016 on March 18, 2021, ie with a delay of four and three years, respectively, as well as the report for the years 2015-2016. in 2019.
In September 2021, Greece released data on air quality for the year 2020. The Commission, however, re-identified the above violations.
In October 2021, the Commission brought an infringement action before the WEU in order to establish that Greece had infringed:
- the rest subject to the Directive, on the one hand, having systematically and continuously the annual values for NO2, in relation to the settlement of Athens (EL0003) since 2010, and, on the other hand, failing to establish, from 11 June 2010, appropriate measures to ensure compliance with the NO2 limit value in the same settlement
- its obligation to take measures to ensure that the period for exceeding limit values is as short as possible.
It is reminded that it is pending previous action by the Commission in order to establish that Greece has violated the rest of the existing directives, having exceeded the limit values for the concentrations of PM10 particles in Thessaloniki.