Action brought on 4 March 2020 — European Commission v Kingdom of Spain

(Case C-125/20)

(2020/C 175/07)

Language of the case: Spanish

Parties

Applicant: European Commission (represented by: A. C. Becker, M. Jauregui Gomez and M. Noll-Ehlers, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Kingdom of Spain

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:

— declare that the Kingdom of Spain has infringed Article 13(1), read together with Annex XI, of Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe, (1) in so far as, from 2010, the annual limit value for nitrogen dioxide NO2 was systematically and persistently exceeded in the zones ES0901 Área de Barcelona, ES0902 Vallès — Baix Llobregat and ES1301 Madrid;

— declare that the Kindom of Spain has infringed Article 13(1), read together with Annex XI, of Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe, in so far as, from 2010, the hourly limit value for nitrogen dioxide NO2 was systematically and persistently exceeded in the zone ES1301 Madrid;

— declare that, from 11 June 2010, the Kingdom of Spain has failed to fulfill its obligations under Article 23(1) of the abovementioned directive, read together with Annex XV thereof, and in particular the obligation laid down in the second paragraph of Article 23(1) to ensure that the exceedance period can be kept as short as possible, by failing to adopt the necessary measures to ensure that the exceedance periods for the limit values in the zones ES0901 Área de Barcelona, ES0902 Vallès — Baix Llobregat and ES1301 Madrid were kept as short as possible;

— order the Kingdom of Spain to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

Article 13(1) of Directive 2008/50/EC lays down the Member States’ obligation to ensure that in all the air quality zones, defined in accordance with Article 4 thereof, the levels of nitrogen dioxide do not exceed the limit values laid down in Annex X1 to the directive. That Annex lays down two limit values in respect of nitrogen dioxide, both applicable from 1 January 2010. One limit value has an annual reference: the Member States are not to exceed 40 mg/m3 per calendar year. The other value is hourly: the Member States are not to exceed the value of 200 mg/m3 more than 18 times a calendar year.

Those limit values for NO2 were previously set by Council Directive 99/30/EC of 22 April 1999 relating to limit values for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter and lead in ambient air. Article 4 of that directive imposed the obligation on Member States to take the measures necessary to ensure that concentrations of nitrogen dioxide did not exceed those values, laying down in Annex II of that directive a progressive time frame for compliance which specifically set 1 January 2010 as the deadline.

The Kingdom of Spain, by means of the annual information provided for in Article 27 of the directive, sent the average annual values of NO2 to the Commission for the years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. According to that information, the Kingdom of Spain systematically and persistently exceeded the annual limit values in the zones ES0901 Área de Barcelona, ES0902 Vallès — Baix Llobregat and ES1301 Madrid.

Article 23(1) of the directive lays down the obligation for Member States to adopt air quality plans, in the event that the limit values are exceeded, in which appropriate measures are set out that ensure that the exceedance period can be kept as short as possible.

The Kingdom of Spain has not provided, in the air quality plans adopted since the coming into force of Directive 2008/50/EC, adequate and appropriate measures in order to ensure that the exceedance period for those limits in the three affected zones can be kept as short as possible.

(1) OJ 2008, L 152, p. 1.