The European Commission is taking wide-ranging legal action to ensure that Member States comply with EU legislation aimed at improving air quality in the European Union.
Its action is aimed at Belgium, Italy, Greece, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria and Spain. Cases relate to separate EU laws on air quality, each of which is aimed at preventing or reducing the harmful effects of air pollution on public health and the environment.
Primarily, the proceedings relate to the failure of Member States to adopt, by the agreed deadlines, national measures implementing these EU laws. The legislation that has not been implemented in time concerns the incineration of waste, air quality limit values for benzene and carbon monoxide, national emission ceilings for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and ammonia and large combustion plants.
The Commission has also taken legal action to ensure compliance with the reporting requirements imposed by EU air pollution legislation as well as by the Regulation which aims to protect the ozone layer.