The European Commission decided to refer Romania to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failure to comply with its obligations under the Ambient Air Quality Directives (Directive 2008/50/EC and Directive 2004/107/EC).
Under the Directives, Member States must assess ambient air quality in accordance with detailed requirements concerning the number, type and location of sampling points, as well as data-quality objectives. These monitoring obligations are essential to ensure appropriate measurements of key pollutants and to underpin effective air-quality management. However, Romania has not ensured that its national air-quality monitoring network meets these legal requirements.
The Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Romania in June 2017 and an additional letter of formal notice in July 2019. The Commission issued a reasoned opinion to Romania in June 2023, but the necessary changes have still not been completed.
Having assessed Romania's latest air-quality data, the Commission concluded that, despite the measures taken by the Romanian authorities - including efforts to modernise the National Air Quality Monitoring Network - significant compliance gaps remain. These include shortcomings in the appropriate number of sampling points, and failures to meet data-quality objectives. The shortcomings concern key pollutants such as particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), heavy metals, and benzoapyrene. As a result, Romania's monitoring network does not provide complete and reliable information on air quality, as required under EU law.
In this context, the Commission considers that efforts by the Romanian authorities have, to date, been insufficient and is therefore referring Romania to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
The Ambient Air Quality Directives 2008/50/EC and 2004/107/EC are part of the clean air policy framework and contribute to reaching the 2030 air pollution objectives of the zero pollution action plan. They prescribe limit and target values for concentrations for several air quality pollutants and lay out detailed requirements for monitoring and reporting of air quality data to ensure that Member States accurately assess, manage, and improve ambient air quality so that EU air quality standards are effectively met.
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