The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on Thursday that Portugal does not comply with European air quality rules and exceeds the limit of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations in three zones of the country.
In this Thursday’s ruling, the TJUE declares “Portugal’s non-compliance” and, according to a press release, “recalls that the limit value per calendar year for NO2 has been set at 40 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³).
The court emphasizes that the data communicated by the Portuguese authorities show that the concentrations of NO2 in the air in the three affected zones regularly and significantly exceeded the annual limit value of 40 µg/m³ between 1 January 2010 and 2019.
The areas in question are — and with excessive levels of NO2 since January 1, 2010, PT-3001 Lisboa Norte, PT-1004 Porto Litoral and PT-1009 Entre Douro e Minho.
The ECJ adds, in support of the European Commission, that Portugal has not complied with the obligations arising from the directive, with regard to the areas in question, in particular with regard to taking appropriate measures to ensure that the exceedance period is as short as possible. keep it short as possible.
According to the court, Portugal admits with regard to the areas of Porto Litoral (PT 1004) and Entre Douro e Minho (PT 1009) that there has been no air quality plan since 2017. -compliance with the directive, taking into account the exceedances observed in these zones.
As regards the air quality plan for the period 2015-2017, the Court of Justice found that the measures taken were intrinsically insufficient, taking into account the estimates of the Portuguese authorities themselves.
Moreover, he argued, Portugal admits that this quality plan did not have the expected effect in terms of reducing NO2 concentrations in the air and that despite this finding, no new plan has been adopted after 2017.
The infringement procedure started in 2015 with the sending of a letter of notification, to which Lisbon responded with three letters (two in 2015 and one in 2017) reporting on the measures taken.
Not satisfied with the measures announced by Portugal, Brussels sent a reasoned opinion for non-compliance in 2020, and in 2022 the Community administrator lodged a complaint with the EU court.
Source: DN
