85/203/EEC - - - I
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COUNCIL DIRECTIVE
of 7 March 1985
on air quality standards for nitrogen dioxide
(85/203/EEC)
(OJ No L 87, 27. 3. 1985, p. 1)
Amended by:
Official Journal
No page date
Council Directive of 20 December 1985 (85/580/EEC) L 372 36 31. 12. 1985Council Directive of 23 December 1991 (91/692/EEC) L 377 48 31. 12. 1991
Amended
by:
Agreement on the European Economic Area (2 94 A 0103(70)) L 1 494 3. 1. 1994
85/203/EEC - - - I
ICOUNCIL DIRECTIVE
of 7 March 1985
on air quality standards for nitrogen dioxide
(85/203/EEC)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMU-
NITIES,
Having regard to the T reaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular Articles 100 and
235 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(1),
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parlia-
ment(2),
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee(3),
Whereas the programmes of action of the European
Communities on the environment of 1973(4), 1977(5)and
1982(6)provide that priority is to be given to measures
against nitrogen dioxide because of its noxiousness and
having regard to the current state of knowledge of its ef-
fects on human health and the environment;
Whereas insufficient technical and scientific information is
available to enable the Council to lay down specific stan-
dards for the environment generally and whereas the adop-
tion of limit values for the protection of human health will
contribute to the protection of the environment as well;
Whereas any discrepancy between the provisions already
applicable or being drawn up in the various Member
States with regard to nitrogen dioxide in the air could give
rise to unequal conditions of competition and could in
consequence directly affect the functioning of the common
market; whereas, therefore, the approximation of laws pre-
scribed in Article 100 of the T reaty should be carried out
in this area;
Whereas one of the basic tasks of the Community is to
promote throughout the Community a harmonious devel-opment of economic activities and a continued and bal-
anced expansion, which is inconceivable without an attack
on pollution and nuisance or an improvement in the qual-
ity of life and the protection of the environment; whereas,
since the T reaty has not provided the necessary powers,
recourse must be had to Article 235 of the T reaty;
Whereas, in order to protect in particular human health
and the environment, it is necessary to set for nitrogen
dioxide a limit value which must not be exceeded in the
territory of the Member States during specified periods
and whereas this value should be based on the results of
work carried out for the World Health Organization, par-
ticularly with regard to the dose/effect relationships estab-
lished for this pollutant;
Whereas, despite the measures taken, it may not be poss-
ible to comply with the limit value in certain zones; where-
as the Member States may be allowed temporary deroga-
(1)OJ No C 258, 27. 9. 1983, p. 3.
(2)OJ No C 337, 17. 12. 1984, p. 434.
(3)OJ No C 206, 6. 8. 1984, p. 1.
(4)OJ No C 112, 20. 12. 1973, p. 1.
(5)OJ No C 139, 13. 6. 1977, p. 1.
(6)OJ No C 46, 17. 2. 1983, p. 1.
85/203/EEC - - - I
IItions on condition that they forward to the Commission
plans for the gradual improvement of the quality of the air
in these zones;
Whereas it is expected that the Council will shortly estab-
lish a further legal act enabling Member States to impose
significantly lower limit values for exhaust gases from
motor vehicles;
Whereas the measures taken pursuant to this Directive
must be economically feasible and compatible with bal-
anced development;
Whereas nitrogen dioxide is also a precursor in the forma-
tion of photochemical oxidants which can be harmful to
man and the environment and whereas preventive action
can help reduce their formation;
Whereas it is necessary to establish measuring stations to
monitor compliance with the limit value for nitrogen diox-
ide and whereas it is desirable that these stations alsom e a s u r en i t r i co x i d ew h i c hi sa ni n t e r m e d i a r ys t e pi nt h e
formation of nitrogen dioxide;
Whereas, in view of the existence of different methods of
analysis in the Member States, it is necessary to permit,
under certain conditions, the use of methods of analysis
other than the reference method laid down in the Direc-
tive;
Whereas, in addition to the limit value, there is a need to
provide for guide values to improve the protection of
human health and contribute to the long-term protection
of the environment;
Whereas subsequent changes in the reference method of
analysis referred to in this Directive may be desirable in
the light of technical and scientific progress in this area;
whereas, in order to facilitate the implementation of the
work necessary to this end, a procedure should be set up
to establish close cooperation between Member States and
the Commission within a Committee on Adaptation to
Scientific and T echnical Progress,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
85/203/EEC - - - I
1Article 1
1. The purpose of this Directive is to:
— fix a limit value (Annex I) for nitrogen dioxide in the
atmosphere specifically to help protect human beings
against the effects of nitrogen dioxide in the environ-
ment,
— lay down guide values (Annex II) for nitrogen dioxide
in the atmosphere in order to improve the protection
of human health and contribute to the long-term
protection of the environment.
2. This Directive shall not apply to exposure at work or
inside buildings.
Article 2
For the purposes of this Directive:
— ‘limit value’ means the concentration of nitrogen diox-
ide as defined in the table in Annex I which must not
be exceeded throughout the territory of the Member
States during specified periods and under the condi-
tions laid down in the following Articles,
— ‘guide values’ means the concentrations of nitrogen
dioxide as given in Annex II considered over specified
periods and intended, in particular, to serve as refer-
ence points for the establishment of specific schemes
within zones determined by the Member States.
Article 3
1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to
ensure that as from 1 July 1987 the concentrations of ni-
trogen dioxide in the atmosphere measured in accordance
with Annex III are not greater than the limit value given
in Annex I.
2. However, when in particular circumstances the ni-
trogen dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere in certain
zones are likely, despite the measures taken, to exceed the
limit value in Annex I after 1 July 1987, the Member State
concerned shall inform the Commission thereof before 1
July 1987.
It shall forward plans for the gradual improvement of the
quality of the air in these zones to the Commission as
soon as possible. These plans, drawn up on the basis of
relevant information on the nature, origin and develop-
ment of this pollution, shall describe, in particular, the
measures taken or to be taken and the procedures implem-
ented or to be implemented by the Member State con-
cerned. These measures and procedures must aim at reduc-
ing the nitrogen dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere
within these zones to values not exceeding the limit value
given in Annex I as rapidly as possible and by 1 January
1994 at the latest.85/203/EEC
85/203/EEC - - - I
2Article 4
1. In the zones in which the Member State concerned
considers it necessary to limit or prevent a foreseeable in-
crease in pollution by nitrogen dioxide in the wake of
urban or industrial development in particular, it may fix
values lower than the limit value in Annex I.
2. In zones which the Member State concerned con-
siders should be afforded special environmental protection,
it may fix values which are generally lower than the guide
values in Annex II.
Article 5
Member States may, at any time, fix values more stRingent
than those laid down in this Directive.
Article 6
Member States shall establish measuring stations to supply
the data necessary for the application of this Directive in
accordance with the specifications in Annex III, in particu-
lar in zones where the limit value is exceeded or likely to
be exceeded and in the zones referred to in Article 4.
Such stations may also measure concentrations of nitric
oxide.
Article 7
1. From 1 July 1987 Member States shall inform the
Commission, not later than six months after the end (31
December) of the annual reference period, of instances in
which the limit value laid down in Annex I has been ex-
ceeded and of the concentrations recorded.
2. Member States shall also notify the Commission, not
later than one year after the end of the annual reference
period, of the reasons for such instances and of the
measures they have taken to deal with them.
3. In addition, Member States shall inform the Commis-
sion, at its request, of:
- - - the concentrations they have measured,
- - - the limit values, deadlines and timetables they have
laid down,
- - - any appropriate measures they have taken,
concerning the zones referred to in Article 4 (1) and (2).
This information must also be made available to the
public.
4. The Commission shall each year communicate to theMember States the information it has received pursuant tothis Article.85/203/EEC
91/692/EEC
85/203/EEC - - - I
3Article 8
At intervals of three years Member States shall send in-
formation to the Commission on the implementation of
this Directive, in the form of a sectoral report which shall
also cover other pertinent Community Directives. The re-
port shall be drawn up on the basis other of a questionn-
aire or outline drafted by the Commission in accordance
with the procedure laid down in Article 6 of Directive
91/692/EEC(7). The questionnaire or outline shall be sent
to the Member States six months before the start of the
period covered by the report. The report shall be made to
the Commission within nine months of the end of the
three-year period covered by it.
The first report shall cover the period from 1994 to 1996
inclusive.
The Commission shall publish a Community report on the
implementation of the Directive within nine months of re-ceiving the reports from the Member States.
Article 9
The application of the measures taken pursuant to this Di-
rective must not lead to a significant deterioration in the
quality of the air in zones, outside urban areas, where the
level of pollution by nitrogen dioxide at the time of imple-
mentation of this Directive is low in relation to the limit
v a l u el a i dd o w ni nA n n e xI .
Article 10
In applying this Directive, Member States shall use:
- - - either the reference method of analysis referred to in
Annex IV ,
- - - or any other method of analysis which the Commis-
sion has been shown is equivalent to the reference
method.
Article 11
1. Where a Member State intends to fix, in a region
near the border with one or more other Member States,
values for concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in the atmos-
phere in accordance with Article 4 (1) and (2), it shall
hold prior consultations with the Member States con-cerned. The Commission shall be informed and may attend
such consultations.
2. Where the limit value given in Annex I or the values
referred to in Article 4 (1) and (2) — provided that the
latter values have been the subject of consultations in ac-
cordance with paragraph 1 — are or are likely to be ex-
ceeded following significant pollution which originates or
may originate in another Member State, the Member
States concerned shall hold consultations with a view to
remedying the situation. The Commission shall be in-
formed and may attend such consultations.
(7)OJ No L 377, 31. 12. 1991, p. 48.85/203/EEC
91/692/EEC
85/203/EEC
85/203/EEC - - - I
4Article 12
The amendments necessary to adapt the specifications in
Annex IV to technical progress shall be adopted in accord-
ance with the procedure described in Article 14. These
amendments shall not be such as to alter, directly or in-
directly, the limit value laid down in Annex I.
Article 13
1. For the purposes of Article 12, a Committee on the
Adaptation of this Directive to Scientific and T echnical
Progress, hereinafter called ‘the Committee’, shall be set
up, composed of representatives of the Member States
with a Commission representative as Chairman.
2. The Committee shall adopt its own rules of pro-
cedure.
Article 14
1. Where the procedure laid down in this Article is to
be followed, matters shall be referred to the Committee by
its Chairman, either on his own initiative or at the request
of the representative of a Member State.
2 The Commission representative shall submit a draft of
the measures to be taken to the Committee. The Commit-
tee shall give its opinion on the draft within a time limit
set by the Chairman having regard to the urgency of the
matter. Decisions shall be taken by a majority of 54 votes,
the votes of the Member States being weighted as pro-
vided in Article 148 (2) of the T reaty. The Chairman shall
not vote.
3. The Commission shall adopt the proposed measures if
they are consistent with the opinion of the Committee.
Where the proposed measures are not consistent with the
opinion of the Committee, or if no opinion is delivered,
the Commission shall without delay submit to the Council
a proposal on the measures to be taken. The Council shall
decide by a qualified majority.
If, within three months of the proposal being submitted to
it, the Council has not acted, the proposed measures shall
be adopted by the Commission.
Article 15
1. Member States shall bring into force the laws, regula-
tions and administrative provisions necessary to comply
with this Directive by 1 January 1987 at the latest and
shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.
2. Member States shall communicate to the Commission
the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt
in the field covered by this Directive.
Article 16
This Directive is addressed to the Member States.85/203/EEC
85/580/EEC
85/203/EEC - - - I
5ANNEX I
LIMIT VALUE FOR NITROGEN DIOXIDE
(The value limit shall be expressed in μg/m3.T h ev o l u m e
must be standardized at the following condition of tem-
perature and pressure: 293 ûK and 101,3 kPa)
Reference period (1) Limit value for nitrogen dioxide
200
Yea r98th percentile calculated from the
m e a nv a l u e sp e rh o u ro rp e rp e r i o d
of less than an hour recorded
throughout the year(2)
(1)The annual reference period begins on 1 January in any
given calendar year and ends on 31 December.
(2)To ensure that the validity of the calculation of the 98th per-centile is recognized, 75 % of the possible values must beavailable and, as far as possible, distributed uniformlythroughout the year in question for that particular measure-ment site.
In cases where the values measured on certain sites are not
available over a period exceeding 10 days. (SIC! days,) thecalculated percentile must mention this fact.
The calculation of the 98th percentile on the basis of the
values recorded throughout the year is to be carried out asfollows: the 98th percentile must be calculated from the va-lues actually measured. The measured values should berounded off to the nearest μg/m
3. All the values are to be
listed in increasing order for each site:
X1≤X2≤X3≤......≤Xk≤......≤XN --- 1≤XN
The 98th percentile is the value of the component of rank k
where k is calculated from the following formula:
k=( q×N)
where q is equal to 0,98 for the 98th percentile and to 0,50
for the 50th percentile, N being the number of values actual-ly measured. The value of (q x N) should be rounded off tot h en e a r e s tw h o l en u m b e r .
Where measuring equipment does not yet allow the produc-
tion of discrete values but provides only classes of valueshigher than 1 μg/m
3, the Member State concerned may, for
the calculation of the percentile, use an interpolation, pro-vided that the interpolation formula is accepted by the Com-mission and that the classes of values are not higher than10μg/m
3. This temporary waiver is only valid for equipment
currently installed for a time span not exceeding the life ofthe equipment and in any case limited to 10 years from theapplication of this Directive.85/203/EEC
85/203/EEC - - - I
6ANNEX II
GUIDE VALUES FOR NITROGEN DIOXIDE
(The value limit shall be expressed in μg/m3.T h ev o l u m e
must be standardized at the following conditions of tem-
perature and pressure: 293 ûK and 101,3 kPa)
Reference period Guide values for nitrogen dioxide
50
Year50th percentile calculated from the
m e a nv a l u e sp e rh o u ro rp e rp e r i o dof less than an hour recorded
throughout the year
YearYear
135
98th percentile calculated from the
m e a nv a l u e sp e rh o u ro rp e rp e r i o dof less than an hour recorded
throughout the year
The formula given in footnote (2) of Annex I must be used
in calculating these percentiles, the value of q being 0,50
for the 50th percentile and 0,98 for the 98th percentile.85/203/EEC
85/203/EEC - - - I
7ANNEX III
MONITORING THE CONCENTRATION OF NITROGEN
DIOXIDE
1. The purpose of measuring NO 2concentrations in the
environment is to assess the individual risk of expo-
sure in excess of the limit value as closely as possible;
measurement points should accordingly be chosen by
the Member States wherever possible from among
sites where this risk is likely to be the greatest.
T wo separate cases need to be considered:
1.1. zones predominantly affected by pollution from
motor vehicles and therefore limited to the vicin-
ity of roads carrying heavy traffic;
1.2. more extensive zones in which discharges from
fixed sources also make a significant contribution
to pollution.
2. In the case of 1.1, the measurement points should be
selected so as to:
— cover examples of the main types of zone pre-
dominantly affected by pollution from motor ve-
hicles, particularly ‘canyon’ streets carrying heavy
traffic and major intersections,
— be, as far as possible, those in which NO 2con-
centrations, as specified in paragraph 1, are likely
to be among the highest.
3. The number of stations to be set up for the zones
defined in paragraph 1.2 should reflect:
— the extent of the polluted zone,
— the uneven spatial distribution of the pollution.
The choice of sites should not exclude ‘canyon’ streets
carrying heavy traffic and major intersections as de-
fined in paragraph 2 if there is a danger of the limit
value being exceeded owing to substantial pollution
from fixed sources of combustion.85/203/EEC
85/203/EEC - - - I
84. The final reading of the instruments should be pro-
c e s s e di ns u c haw a yt h a ta nh o u r l ym e a no ram e a n
of less than an hour may be calculated in accordance
with the provisions of Annex I. In order to enable
possible checks to be made, data should be stored
where:
— the limit value has not been exceeded, until the
next periodic report by the Commission is drawn
up as provided for in Article 8,
— the limit value has been exceeded, until the mea-
sures called for in Article 3 have been taken.85/203/EEC
85/203/EEC - - - I
9ANNEX IV
REFERENCE METHOD OF ANALYSIS TO BE USED
FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS DIRECTIVE
The reference method of analysis used to determine ni-
trogen oxides shall be the chemiluminescence method de-
scribed in ISO standard DIS 7996.
For these methods the language versions published by the
ISO and any other versions certified by the Commission as
being in line with them shall be considered authentic.
In using the measurement methods, the following points
should be taken into consideration:
1. The sampling head should be at a distance of at least
0,5 m from buildings in order to avoid a screening ef-
fect.
2. The sampling line (pipes and connections) should be
of inert materials (e.g. glass, PTFE, stainless steel)
which do not alter the NO 2concentration.
3. The sampling line between the sampling head and the
instrument should be as short as possible. The time
taken for gas volume samples to pass through the
sampling line should not exceed 10 seconds.
4. The sampling head entry must be protected against
rain and insects. If a pre-filter is used, it should be
selected and maintained (regular cleaning) so as to
minimize its influence on the NO 2concentration.
5. Condensation in the sampling line must be avoided.
6 . T h es a m p l i n gl i n es h o u l db ec l e a n e dr e g u l a r l y ,t a k i n g
local conditions into account.
7. Sampling should not be influenced by gas discharges
from the instrument or discharges from the calibra-
tion system.
8. Sampling at the sampling head should not be in-
fluenced by adjoining installations (the air-condition-
ing or data transmission equipment).
9. All the necessary precautions must be taken to pre-
vent temperature variations from producing an excess-
ive percentage of errors of measurement.
10. The instruments should be calibrated regularly.
11. The sampling line must be air-tight and the flow-rate
must be inspected regularly.85/203/EEC