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The CAFE programme / Air quality

Clean Air for Europe

The Clean Air for Europe (CAFE) programme was launched by the European Commission in 2001, with the aim of reviewing current air quality policies and assessing progress towards attainment of the EU's long-term air quality objectives, as laid down in the Sixth Environment Action Programme.

The need for CAFE derived initially from the fact that several directives of importance for emission levels and air quality were due for revision around 2004, and to achieve proper results it would, in the view of the Commission, be necessary to gather them into a single programme.

The CAFE programme deals with fine particles (PM) and ground-level ozone, both because of their serious effects on health and the fact that much will have to be done if concentrations are to be brought down to acceptable levels. Other outstanding air pollutant problems, such as acidification and eutrophication, are also given high attention.

The Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution

CAFE provided the analysis for the EU's Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution, which was adopted by the Commission in September 2005.

By establishing interim environmental objectives for 2020 in the strategy, the Commission sets the level of ambition regarding air quality in the EU until that year. This is of importance for other air quality legislation, such as the directive on national emission ceilings (NEC), which is currently subject to review.

The idea is that CAFE should evolve into an ongoing five-year cyclical programme, in which the 2005 Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution simply marks the first milestone.

EU air quality legislation
In 1996 the EU Council of Ministers adopted the directive on ambient air quality assessment and management (96/62/EC). This is a framework directive that, among other things, lays down how monitoring systems should be set up so that information on measurements is made accessible to the public.

The directive has been supplemented by four daughter directives that set limit values and/or target values for maximum allowed concentrations of air pollutants in ambient air:

• 1999/30/EC, covering sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particles and lead.
• 2000/69/EC, which covers benzene and carbon monoxide.
• 2002/3/EC, which deals with ground-level ozone.
• 2004/107/EC, covering polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and a number of heavy metals (As, Cd, Ni, Hg).

The framework directive says nothing about how the limit values should be achieved; that is up to each member country to decide. However, it does require that corrective measures should be taken if the standards are not met. The specified limit values are minimum standards. This means that member countries can introduce stricter standards if they wish.

In September 2005, the European Commission proposed a new air quality directive. By combining the 1996 framework directive with the subsequent daughter directives, air quality legislation would be streamlined and simplified.

The Council of Ministers and the European Parliament reached a compromise on the proposal in December 2007. A new limit value for fine particles (PM2.5) will enter into force by 2015. The new directive will not change the current standards as such, but member states will be given more time to meet already existing standards in certain areas.