The EU Ambient Air Quality Directives is currently under revision with the focus on 3 policy areas:
Policy area 1: closer alignment of the EU air quality standards with scientific knowledge including the latest recommendations of the WHO.
Policy area 2: improving the air quality legislative framework, to increase its legal certainty and enforceability, including as regards the provisions on public information, penalties, and access to effective remedies.
Policy area 3: strengthening of air quality monitoring, modelling, and plans.
The revision of two EU ambient air quality directives (AAQD), dating from 2004 and 2008, was put forward by the European Commission in October 2022. The European Council, and the European Parliament, developed their positions during 2023 and after hard negotiations a common position between the three parties was agreed during spring 2024 and will be formally adopted in autumn 2024 [1].
The new and old limit values are presented in table 1 and are put in perspective by including the WHO recommendation (see Table 1). For instance, the annual limit values for the pollutants with the highest documented impact on human health, PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), are reduced from 25 µg/m³ to 10 µg/m³ and from 40 µg/m³ to 20 µg/m³ respectively. Carbon monoxide (CO), PM2.5 and NO2 now have short-time (24 hour) limit values that were lacking in the previous directive.
Benzene has been reduced from 5 µg/m3 in the old directive to 3.4 µg/m3 in the new directive. For arsenic, cadmium, nickel, and benzo(a)pyrene the levels remain as in the old directive, but they have been upgraded from target values to limit values. For arsenic, the levels correspond to a cancer risk according to WHO of one in 100,000 people, which is quite a high risk [2]. Ozone remains a target level with an 8-hour mean of 120 µg/m3. Target values are less enforceable than the limit values.
| Pollutants* | 2021 WHO Guidelines | EU Current Limit values | EU new Limit values* |
| PM10 (year) | 15 µg/m3 | 40 µg/m3 | 20 µg/m3 |
| PM10 (day) | 45 µg/m3 | 50 µg/m3 | 45 µg/m3 |
| PM2.5 (year) | 5 µg/m3 | 25 µg/m3 | 10 µg/m3 |
| PM2.5 (day) | 15 µg/m3 | - | 25 µg/m3 |
| NO2 (year) | 10 µg/m3 | 40 µg/m3 | 20 µg/m3 |
| NO2 (day) | 25 µg/m3 | 50 µg/m3 | |
| NO2 (hour) | 200 µg/m3 | 200 µg/m3 |
Table 1, The pollutants, and their values in WHO guidelines, previous and new directive.
* from 2030-01-01
Possibility for postponements and other flexibilities.
The limit and target values are to be met before 1 January 2030 by the member states and they are allowed to deduct emissions from natural sources and winter-sanding and -salting. Furthermore, the directive also provides member states with the possibility to request a postponement of the 2030 deadline:
1. European Council, E., Air quality: Council and Parliament strike deal to strengthen standards in the EU. 2024.
2. https://environment.ec.europa.eu/publications/revision-eu-ambient-air-qu...
