European justice condemns Spain for pollution in Madrid and Barcelona

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has condemned Spain this Thursday for the systematic breach of the community standard of air quality in Madrid and the metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona.

In these urban agglomerations —where around 7.5 million people reside, more than 15% of the country's inhabitants— the annual safety limits set by the EU for exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) have been repeatedly exceeded since 2010. ), a harmful substance linked mainly to combustion vehicles.

The sentence known now does not carry a sanction at the moment, but, if the breaches persist, the European Commission can take Spain back to court and ask it to face a fine, as has already happened with the 74,

The Commission approved in 2008 the air quality directive that established the new NO₂ limits that must not be exceeded.

They entered into force in 2010 and in Madrid and the municipalities of the metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona (which includes the Catalan capital and the municipalities that surround it) they have been breached year after year during the last decade.

Brussels opened a file against Spain for this reason in 2015, although it decided to put it on hold in 2018 due to the anti-pollution plans put in place by Madrid and Barcelona, ​​with measures such as low emission zones (the areas in which entrance to the most polluting vehicles).

But when José Luis Martínez-Almeida (PP) won the Madrid elections in May 2019 and announced that the first thing he would do was suspend the city's low emission zone,

The CJEU understands that in the period analyzed —between 2010 and 2018— "Spain did not ensure that the limits of nitrogen dioxide were not systematically and continuously exceeded."

In addition, "Spain has not ensured that the air quality plans establish adequate measures so that the period for exceeding the limit values ​​set for NO₂ is as short as possible", states the court.

Although the powers are fundamentally municipal, the ruling condemns Spain, which is the one against which the Commission can act.

But, if there were an economic sanction in the future, the Government could transfer it to the responsible Administrations, as it is already doing with part of the million-dollar fine that is being paid for the incorrect purification of wastewater.

In any case, the CJEU criticizes in the ruling made public this Thursday both the municipal and state authorities for not adopting "the appropriate measures that would make it possible to guarantee that the period for exceeding the limit values ​​set for NO₂ by directive 2008/50 was as short as possible."

no state plan

The most widespread breaches for which Spain is condemned refer to the nine consecutive years, from 2010 to 2018, in which the annual exposure limit to NO₂ was exceeded in Madrid and in the Barcelona metropolitan area, which is set in the current community directive at 40 micrograms per cubic meter.

And what has happened since 2018?

Well, Madrid has continued to fail to comply each year, as reflected in the annual air quality reports of the Ministry for Ecological Transition.

In the case of the metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona, ​​in 2019 the limit for nitrogen dioxide was exceeded, but not in 2020 and 2021. In addition, the sentence this Thursday also occurs in the case of Madrid for systematically exceeding another indicator between 2010 and 2018:

The 2008 directive required countries to implement air quality plans when safety levels for any pollutant were exceeded.

However, in its ruling, the court highlights the "absence of a state-level plan" in April 2017, which was one of the last deadlines that the Commission gave Spain, despite the fact that the deadlines had been exceeded uninterruptedly for eight years. contamination limits.

In addition, the CJUE also briefly analyzes some of the measures adopted by the consistories.

Regarding Madrid Central —which, after a period of suspension, the PP and Ciudadanos City Council reactivated after changing some aspects and renaming it ZBE District Center—, the court details that, in addition to being applied late, the restrictions only affected

an area of ​​4.72 square kilometers, when Madrid extends for 604.45 square kilometers.

In addition, "the ban on the circulation of diesel vehicles over 19 years old that it establishes will take place in 2025 at the earliest."

In the case of the metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona, ​​the court stresses that the creation of the low emission zone was not carried out until after the expiration of the term set by the Commission, and that "its effectiveness" is "limited".

new limits

Far from easing pressure, the Commission's intention is to tighten the limits for exposure to various pollutants, including, in addition to NO₂, harmful particles also linked to traffic and industry.

Air pollution is responsible for more than 300,000 premature deaths in the EU, warns the European Environment Agency.

For this reason, Brussels has proposed that by the end of this decade the annual exposure limit for NO₂ goes from the current 40 micrograms per cubic meter to 20. Currently, half of the 80 most populous cities in Spain exceed that threshold of 20 micrograms that Brussels has proposed in the process of reviewing the air quality directive that has been opened.

Demonstration in 2019 in defense of Madrid Central after the victory of PP. ANDREA COMAS

One of the reasons that lead to this update of the standard by the Commission is the latest review by the World Health Organization (WHO) of the exposure limits for different contaminants.

The WHO, after the scientific knowledge accumulated in the last fifteen years, ruled last year that pollution has harmful effects, even at levels that until now were considered safe.

Low emission zones

Although they cannot be considered the definitive solution to the problem of urban pollution, which involves a drastic change in mobility, one of the measures that have been applied in many European cities for years and that at the end of the last decade was making its way in Spain is setting up low emission zones.

These are areas where access, circulation and parking of vehicles is restricted according to their polluting potential.

The Spanish Law on Climate Change and Ecological Transition, of May 2021, established that all municipalities in Spain with more than 50,000 inhabitants should have areas of this type "before 2023".

There are 149 cities in which more than 25 million people live, more than half of the country's population.

More information

Only 13% of cities will meet their obligation to have low emission zones before 2023

However, Spain is heading towards a massive breach of this legal obligation.

According to the data collected from the 149 municipalities by EL PAÍS, only 20 of these cities —13.4%— maintain that their low emission zones will be active by January 2023. The mayors blame the ministry for this failure for not having The royal decree with the regulations to develop these areas has still been approved.

The case of Spain is not something isolated in the European context.

Several EU countries have already been condemned for non-compliance with the air quality directive, including Germany, Italy and France.

In 2018, the Commission recognized in an official report that there was a "stubborn breach of air quality standards" by most European countries.

But in this analysis it was admitted that in some cases, such as Spain, the measures that had been designed could advance towards the limits of the air quality directive.

But Martínez-Almeida's announcements after the defeat of Manuela Carmena in 2019 in the capital exhausted the patience of Brussels, which reactivated the file against Spain and filed a complaint with the CJEU in the summer of 2019, which has led to the conviction of this Thursday.

More than a decade of breaches

• 2008. The air quality directive that gave countries until 2010 to comply with the nitrogen dioxide limits was approved.

• June 2015. Spain receives the first site to meet these levels.

• February 2017. Brussels prepares a reasoned opinion against Spain for repeated non-compliance in Madrid and Barcelona.

• May 2018. The Commission leaves the file against Spain deadlocked.

• July 2019. Brussels reactivates the case and denounces Spain before the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) after the PP's announcement of the suspension of Madrid Central.

• February 2022. The oral hearing of the case for which Spain has now been sentenced for failing to comply with the pollution levels in Madrid and Barcelona is held at the CJUE. 

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