Italy has “persistently and systematically” breached EU rules against small-particle air pollution, the European Court of Justice found Tuesday in a ruling supporting legal action by Brussels against Rome.
The court held that from 2008 to 2017, “the daily and annual limit values for PM10 particulate matter were very regularly exceeded” in a number of cities.
The court further held that backing a complaint brought by the European Commission, the ECJ judges also found that Italy had “manifestly failed” to sufficiently tackle the problem in spite of making efforts to do so, it said.
Italy’s approach to the issue was at odds with the time frame set out in EU law on clean air and with “the importance of the objectives of protection of human health and the environment”.
It is now up to Rome to fully implement EU law without delay.
If the commission believes that Italy has not done so, it can go back to the ECJ seeking the imposition of a fine. (dpa)
