Madrid complies for the first time with the European pollution limit

The town hall of Madrid announced this Monday that it complies with European air quality legislation, a novelty for the capital, which systematically failed to comply with the limits, which cost Spain a sentence in December from the European court.

“The city complies for the first time” with the European directive of 2008 “relative to the ambient air quality and to a cleaner atmosphere in Europe,” the city council announced in a statement, adding: “Madrid, finally, breathes.”

The capital of Spain “infringed from 2010 to 2021 the thresholds of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) established” by this directive, the city council found.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) condemned Spain at the end of December for failing to comply with the legislation on air quality for several years in the urban agglomerations of Madrid and Barcelona.

In a decision consulted by AFP, the CJEU estimated that the Spanish authorities did not take the necessary measures to make the application of the European directives mandatory in both cities between 2010 and 2018.

The conviction did not carry a penalty for now, but it could lead the European Commission to request a fine if spain did not take action.

Under pressure from Brussels, the Madrid mayor’s office launched a strict traffic restriction device in the city center in 2018. Since then, the average concentration of nitrogen dioxide has been reduced by 22.7%, the municipality said.

NO2 emissions, favored by traffic jams and diesel engines, are one of the main causes of atmospheric pollution, along with fine particles (PM10). They are responsible for several thousand premature deaths each year in Spain, according to the European Environment Agency.