Publication details
EU air quality and vehicles: an incompatible pair?
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | In this day and age, the focus is set on climate change. However, one must not forget that according to the World Health Organisation, most Europeans still live in areas with poor or inadequate air quality. Scientists and doctors generally agree that inadequate air quality contributes to respiratory diseases, cancer, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore, it is vital to comprehensively regulate certain activities and businesses to increase air quality gradually. In urban areas, polluted air can be attributed to several sources. However, one group of pollution sources prevail - vehicles. Some municipalities and cities have been trying to restrict vehicles to improve air quality in recent years. The issue is even more pressing in the light of vehicle emission scandals which showed that almost all vehicle manufacturers somehow altered emission testing results to comply with EU legislation. Furthermore, several infringement procedures for inadequate air quality were filed against several Member States. Municipalities (and subsequently the Member States) are nowadays in a challenging position because, on the one hand, they need to improve air quality. However, on the other hand, strict local regulation may be frowned upon by inhabitants, political parties, and industry stakeholders. Local authorities, therefore, have to weigh frequently opposing interests if they want to improve air quality successfully. One possible solution to improve local air quality is restricting vehicles via legal regulation. This might be problematic, as was shown in the recent CJEU case law (C-177/19 P). Therefore, this contribution aims to show whether current EU air quality legislation (Directive 2008/50) offers instruments to regulate vehicles (and improve air quality and protect human health) and also to ascertain how much local authorities can restrict vehicles without infringing any provisions in Regulation 2018/858 (vehicle type-approval regulation). The analysed issue combines several legal disciplines within EU environmental law. The first one is air quality regulation (or air protection in general), and the second one is type-approval regulation (this one also borders on issues connected to the Internal market and free movement of goods). The unsaid subtheme of the whole contribution is the protection of human health and its connection to the environment. The issue can also illustrate different approaches to vehicle restriction to improve air quality because local municipalities need to consider social, economic, and legal aspects when restricting or limiting vehicles. |