Tuesday

28th Mar 2023

Italy 'manifestly failed' on air pollution, EU top court rules

  • It is estimated that air pollution in Italy costs €1,535 per person annually (Photo: gnuckx)

Italy has been "systematically and persistently" exceeding daily and annual limits of particulate matter pollution permitted by EU rules, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Tuesday (10 November).

From 2008 to 2017, "the daily and annual limit values for PM10 particulate matter were very regularly exceeded'' in several Italian cities, the court said.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The ECJ concluded that Italy has "manifestly failed" to adopt timely measures to tackle pollution as required by the timeframe set out in the EU law on clean air.

Tuesday's ruling ends the first cycle of the infringement procedure started by the European Commission against Italy in 2014.

In 2018, the European Commission also decided to refer Hungary and Romania, France, Germany and the United Kingdom to the ECJ for failing to respect limit values for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) - another air pollutant produced as a result of road traffic and other fossil fuel combustion processes.

In 2019, Italy then joined the group of countries referred to the EU top court for exceeding the legal limits NO2.

According to the European Environment Agency, Italy has the most premature deaths in the EU related to NO2 pollution.

A report of the European public health alliance published earlier this year identified that Milan, Padua, Venice, Brescia and Turin are among the top 10 EU cities with the highest costs stemming from air pollution.

It is estimated that air pollution in Italy costs €1,535 per person each year.

According to environmental lawyer Ugo Taddei from NGO ClientEarth, "this ruling is the result of years of poor management of the issue at the regional and national level - a failure which has put people's health on the line".

"We need to see a complete turnaround, with new regional air quality plans that slash levels of pollution in the shortest time possible, to bring air quality within legal limits," he also said, adding that being forced to breathe dirty air in the 21st century is "unacceptable".

In 2017, the environmentalist NGO launched legal action against Lombardy, Italy's most-polluted region, to force local authorities to update their air quality plan.

Earlier this year, the commission concluded that a majority of member states are off-target to deliver on their air pollution reduction commitments for 2020 and 2030.

Every year, air pollution causes about 400,000 premature deaths in the EU.

While scientists are currently carrying out studies to assess the link between air pollution and Covid-19, a 2003 study on the victims of the respiratory disease SARS found that patients in regions with 'moderate' air pollution levels were 84 percent more likely to die than those in regions with 'low' air pollution.

Air pollution drops in Europe, but how long will it last?

Air pollution has dramatically decreased across Europe following the coronavirus lockdown measures - although experts warn an 'emissions surge' is likely to happen as economies recover. Meanwhile, experts point out the link between air pollution and Covid-19 "underlying conditions".

Air pollution in many EU cities 'stubbornly high'

Many European citizens are still exposed to illegal and dangerous levels of pollution, especially badly in Italy and Poland, new data from the European Environment Agency revealed.

Opinion

Italy's return to statism spells trouble for the eurozone

There are profound questions about whether the windfall of cash from the EU coronavirus recovery fund will truly help Italy recover or whether it will cause more problems than it solves, for Rome and the rest of the eurozone.

Opinion

Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity

From the perspective of international relations, the EU is a rare bird indeed. Theoretically speaking it cannot even exist. The charter of the United Nations, which underlies the current system of global governance, distinguishes between states and organisations of states.

Editorial

Okay, alright, AI might be useful after all

Large Language Models could give the powers trained data-journalists wield, to regular boring journalists like me — who don't know how to use Python. And that makes me tremendously excited, to be honest.

Latest News

  1. Biden's 'democracy summit' poses questions for EU identity
  2. Finnish elections and Hungary's Nato vote in focus This WEEK
  3. EU's new critical raw materials act could be a recipe for conflict
  4. Okay, alright, AI might be useful after all
  5. Von der Leyen pledges to help return Ukrainian children
  6. EU leaders agree 1m artillery shells for Ukraine
  7. Polish abortion rights activist vows to appeal case
  8. How German business interests have shaped EU climate agenda

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality
  5. Promote UkraineInvitation to the National Demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine on 25.02.2023
  6. Azerbaijan Embassy9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us