The European directives setting standards for ambient air quality (96/62, 1999/30, 80/779, 85/203 and 2008/50/EC) pursue a general objective of protecting health and the environment and do not, as such, confer individual rights on individuals where violation could entitle them to compensation. However, they may refer the matter to the national courts to require the authorities to adopt the measures necessary to comply with the obligations arising from the same directives.
This is what the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Thursday 22 December (case C-61/21) in response to the Versailles Administrative Court of Appeal’s refusal to compensate a private individual who considered that he had suffered damage due to the deterioration of his state of health caused by the deterioration of the ambient air quality in the Paris area. The French judges asked the Court whether and under what conditions individuals can claim compensation from the State for health damage resulting from exceeding the NO2 and PM10 concentration limits set by the Directives.
The Court replied that, according to its case law, individuals who have suffered damage as a result of a Member State’s failure to fulfil its obligations under Union law are entitled to compensation. However, they can only engage the responsibility of the State if three conditions are met: - the rule of EU law violated is intended to confer rights on them; - the violation of this rule is sufficiently characterized; - there is a direct causal link between this violation and the damage suffered by these individuals.
In this case, according to the European judges, although they contain clear obligations for the States as to the result they must achieve in terms of air quality, the directives in question pursue general objectives and do not, as such, contain any explicit attribution of individual rights to individuals that could give them a right to compensation. Nor can they be considered as implicitly conferring such rights.
Nevertheless, injured individuals may bring an action before the national courts to establish the responsibility of the State under national law and claim compensation on that basis.
See the Court’s judgment (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/4rl (Original version in French by Francesco Gariazzo)