Case C-488/15: Action brought on 14 September 2015 — European Commission v Republic of Bulgaria
Date: 2015-09-14
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: air quality, atmospheric pollutant, degree of pollution, environmental cooperation, environmental impact, environmental protection, environmental standard, infringement of EU law, quality of the environment, regions of Bulgaria








C_2015389EN.01002002.xml










23.11.2015   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 389/20





Action brought on 14 September 2015 — European Commission v Republic of Bulgaria
(Case C-488/15)
(2015/C 389/22)
Language of the case: Bulgarian

Parties


Applicant: European Commission (represented by: E. Kružíková, E. Manhaeve and S. Petrovа, acting as Agents)

Defendant: Republic of Bulgaria

Form of order sought

The European Commission claims that the Court should:






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by exceeding both the annual and daily limit values for PM10 systematically and from 2007 until at least 2013 inclusive in the following zones and agglomerations: BG0001 agglomeration Sofia; BG0002 agglomeration Plovdiv; BG0004 North Bulgaria; BG0005 South-West Bulgaria and BG0006 South-East Bulgaria;










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by exceeding the daily limit values for PM10 systematically and from 2007 until at least 2013 inclusive and the annual limit values for PM10 of 2007, 2008 and 2010 in zone BG0003 Varna;










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and in the absence of more detailed information to the effect for instance that the situation of exceeding the daily and annual limit values for PM10 in the abovementioned zones and agglomerations has changed, declare that Bulgaria has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 13(1) read in conjunction with Annex XI of the directive; (1)











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in view of the fact that, excluding the latest annual report on air quality for 2013, both the annual and daily limit values for PM10 in all of the abovementioned zones and agglomerations continue to be exceeded, also declare that Bulgaria has not complied with its obligations under the second subparagraph of Article 23(1) of the directive and in particular its obligation to keep the exceedance period as short as possible, and declare that it continues not to fulfil its obligations;










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order the Republic of Bulgaria to pay the costs.





Pleas in law and main arguments

On the basis of the latest annual report on air quality and also of the responses of the Bulgarian authorities to the reasoned opinion, the Commission takes the view that, at present, the Republic of Bulgaria has not fulfilled its obligations under Article 13(1) concerning compliance with the annual and daily limit values for the presence of micro-dust particles in the air (PM10) and under the second subparagraph of Article 23(1) of the directive with regard to the obligation to draw up air quality plans in order to keep the exceedance period as short as possible.
The Commission considers it necessary for the Court of Justice of the European Union to declare that the Republic of Bulgaria has infringed those provisions of the directive.


(1)  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 (OJ 2008 L 152, p. 1).