Brussels, 10 June 2022
The EU has robust requirements in place with regard to reporting and exchange of ambient air quality information. All Member States report annually on the achievement of EU air quality objectives and standards set in the ambient air legislation, including reporting about exceedances of particulate matter (PM10) standards.
In addition, Member States are required to ensure that up-to-date information on ambient concentrations of the different air pollutants (including PM10) is routinely made available to the public as well as other organisations. This information is also available in the European air quality index .
The Commission is concerned about air pollution in Greece, and has referred Greece to the Court of Justice of the EU for persistent exceedances above limit values for particulate matter (PM10) and failure to keep exceedance periods as short as possible. The EU is supporting clean air policy through the Next Generation EU instrument and a wide range of funding programmes within the Multiannual Financial Framework. 45.5% of the recovery and resilience plan of Greece provides spending linked to the green transition, including measures directly aiming to reduce air pollution that are complemented by measures for renewables, energy efficiency, sustainable and multi-modal transport and other investment contributing to air pollution reduction.
In addition, Cohesion Policy supports the financing of specific tools to monitor air quality. To this end, the financing of studies and provision of high level equipment are key actions supported by the Strucutral Funds, where in the 2021 some EUR 7 million are programed for monitoring air quality in Greece.
Source – EU Parliament: Answer to a written question – Air pollution in Greece and the implementation of EU legislation on air quality – E-000206/2021(ASW)