Legal challenges over air quality in EU cities

Brussels has become the latest European region to face a legal challenge on its obligations under the EU air quality directive. Client Earth has filed a case against the Brussels regional government, calling on the city authority to produce a plan to bring levels of nitrogen dioxide down to legal limits as soon as possible, claiming that citizens have been exposed to illegal levels since 2010. This new case adds to legal actions in the UK and Germany. Cases have also recently been launched in Brno and Prague in the Czech Republic.

In September in Germany, the Administrative Court of North-Rhine Westphalia ordered authorities not to wait for the federal government to act, but to introduce by January 2018 a diesel ban in Düsseldorf to tackle ongoing illegal levels of air pollutants. The case was filed by Client Earth with German partner DUH, and more results from Germany are expected in the coming months.

Source: Ends Europe Daily, 21 September 2016.

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