The Council of State, the highest administrative jurisdiction, certainly notes some progress but the measures implemented by the executive are still considered insufficient, in Paris and Lyon, to bring pollution below European thresholds.
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There is better… The air quality of large French cities is improving since none exceeds the pollution thresholds for fine particles. Concerning nitrogen dioxide, if Toulouse and Marseille are no longer concerned, Lyon and Paris on the other hand still exceed European standards.
Worse, the Council of State notes that no measures are planned in the near future to remedy this. He orders the State to pay two fines of 5 million euros each: two fines because two periods were examined: the last half of 2022 and the first of 2023. He also announces that the case is not closed. The situation will be examined again at the end of next year with a possible renewal of these sanctions if the situation does not change.
Previous convictions
The institution, contacted by several environmental defense associations, ordered the State on July 12, 2017 to implement plans to reduce the concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particles (PM10). in 13 urban areas in France, in order to comply with the European directive on air quality, adopted in French law. In 2020, noting that the measures taken were insufficient to achieve this objective in 8 areas in France, he ordered the State to act, subject to a penalty of 10 million euros per six months of delay. After a first penalty of 10 million in August 2021 pronounced for the half-year of delay going from January 2021 to July 2021, the Council of State again ordered the State to pay 20 million euros for the second half of 2021 and the first of 2022, the situation remaining fragile or poor in 4 areas.
► “Air pollution: the Council of State orders the State to pay two fines of 5 million euros”, The press release from the Council of State integral
The new penalty of 10 million euros decreed yesterday Friday will go to the applicant NGO, Friends of the Earth (for 10,000 euros), and above all to a set of public or associative organizations involved in particular in public health and environment (Ademe, Cerema, Anses, Ineris, Airparif, Atmo), indicates Agence France presse.
“We will continue to implement public policies, in conjunction with the communities concerned, to improve air quality and protect the health of the French,” promised the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu. The Ministry of Ecological Transition does have a new atmospheric protection plan in preparation, it now remains to be seen whether it will be adopted in time and whether it produces its effects early enough to avoid a new sanction in a year’s time.
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