State of play, main conclusions, outlook

The fitness check looked at the performance of the two complementary EU Ambient Air Quality (AAQ) Directives (Directives 2008/50/EC and 2004/107/EC).

These Directives set air quality standards and requirements to ensure that Member States adequately monitor and/or assess air quality on their territory, in a harmonised and comparable manner. The Fitness Check concluded that these Directives have been partially effective in improving air quality, but also acknowledged that they have not been fully effective, and not all their objectives have been met to date. It further concluded that the remaining gap to achieve air quality standards is too wide in certain cases.

Subsequently, the European Green Deal announced in the framework of the zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment (COM(2019) 640) that the Commission would draw on the lessons learnt from the Fitness Check and propose to strengthen provisions on monitoring, modelling and air quality plans to help local authorities achieve cleaner air, as well as to revise EU air quality standards to align them more closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations.

On 26 October 2022, the Commission adopted a proposal for a revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directives. This would set interim 2030 EU air quality standards, aligned more closely with World Health Organization guidelines, while putting the EU on a trajectory to achieve zero pollution for air at the latest by 2050, in synergy with climate-neutrality efforts.

The revision would also bring more clarity on access to justice, effective penalties, right for compensation in the case of a violation of EU air quality rules and better public information on air quality. New legislation would furthermore support local authorities by strengthening the provisions on air quality monitoring, modelling, and improved air quality plans.

The proposal for a revision of the air quality legislation is supported by an impact assessment, SWD(2022) 545..

Estimated savings and benefits

Good air quality makes good economic sense. Measures taken to improve air quality tend to be motivated by multiple expected outcomes, be they related to energy policy, transport policy or climate policy: many of the more expensive measures linked to air quality action plans are often taken also with other objectives in mind, such as reducing congestion, improving mobility or reducing greenhouse gases.

The impact assessment shows that the benefits of the proposed revision for society far outweigh the costs. The main benefits expected are related to health (including reduced mortality and morbidity, reduced healthcare expenditure, reduced absence from work due to illness and increased productivity at work) and the environment (including reduced ozone-related crop yield losses). The proposal is estimated to lead to gross annual benefits estimated at €42 billion up to €121 billion in 2030, for less than a €6 billion costs annually.

Administrative costs are in an estimated range of EUR 75 million to EUR 106 million a year in 2030, and are expected to fall mainly on public authorities (e.g. related to the costs of drawing up air quality plans, of air quality assessments and additional sampling points). It is important to note that the Ambient Air Quality Directives impose no direct administrative costs on consumers and businesses. The potential costs for them stem mainly from measures taken by Member State authorities to achieve the air quality standards set in the Directives.

Fit for Future Platform

The Fit for Future platform made a number of suggestions about the air quality legislation (opinion). The Platform suggested to:

1. Improve air quality monitoring networks to diminish discrepancies and enhance comparability across Member States; improve design of air quality plans and promote local/regional level action.

2. Modernise air quality standards and supplement limit values with regional exposure reduction targets.

3. Extend monitoring to pollutants not currently covered by the Ambient Air Quality Directives such as Ultrafine Particles, black carbon and other components of PM, metals, and ammonia.

4. Enhance the coherence with EU legislation, including urban and road transport, energy efficiency and climate.

5. Address emission sources such as tyre and brake wear, non-exhaust traffic related particles, heavy goods vehicle refrigeration units, heating and power emissions and wood burning.

6. Reinforce the governance across levels of government to improve the effectiveness of the Ambient Air Quality Directives.

7. Simplify the legislative framework by bringing together directives 2008/50/EC and 2004/107/EC in a single directive.

The suggestions from the Fit for Future Platform were considered throughout the impact assessment, including for instance recommendations related to air quality standards, implementation, monitoring, merging the existing directives into one, coherence with related policies.

Suggestions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 have been considered at least to some extent in the context of the impact assessment work as indicated in the inception impact assessment published by the Commission – and are reflected in the proposal for a revised Ambient Air Quality Directive, which merges the current Ambient Air Quality Directives, 2008/50/EC and 2004/107/EC into a single Directive.

Addressing suggestion number 5 falls outside the scope of the revision of the Ambient Air quality Directives. It is worth noting that this revision will not change legislation controlling the emissions of air pollutants because the Ambient Air Quality Directives set maximum allowed concentrations of certain air pollutants in ambient air and do not directly regulate emission sources.