Air pollution, a concerning invoice for the French State? This Friday July 10, the Council of State has ordered the government to make concrete measures to reduce air pollution in France. Even though air pollution decreased during lockdown, the highest administrative jurisdiction thumps the table and could directly target the pocket book.
As a matter of fact, the Council of State threatens the State with a record-breaking penalty – that could reach 10 million euros by semester of delay. The goal being to force the State to make measures for reducing air pollution in order to get significant results. In a press release, the authority says the sum remains “the highest payment ever imposed to force the State to fulfill a decision made by the administrative judge”.
Moreover, a European directive from 2008 on the air quality set the limit values as for the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particles (PM10). Moreover, the government has been already called out by Les Amis de la Terre NGO that resorted to the Council of State in 2015. And it is precisely following this initiative that the threat of penalty has been created.
Two years later, in July 2017, the Council of State already enjoined the government to “put together” and “set up plans” that are essential to bring as quick as possible a level lower than the values set by the European decree in twelve specific areas in the country.
But, according to the jurisdiction, the French government still has done nothing it should have done. In Île-de-France, the Council of State considers that “if the plan put together in 2018 includes credible measures”, the next due date set to 2025 to keep with the limit standards is “too far away in time to be able to be looked at as assuring a correct fulfilling of the decision in 2017”.
Therefore, the conclusion is crystal clear for the Council: “The State did not make enough measures in eight areas still exceeding” the standards, and says they could not show that “effects cumulated from the different measures passed after the decision from July 12, 2017 will enable to bring concentration levels of these two pollutants below the limit standards as soon as possible”.
Which leads to the 10-million-euro penalty threat by semester, that is to say 54,000 euros the State has to pay from the moment “it does not justify to make within six months measures required”. This is the last step of a long judiciary process started in 2008. In case of extended inaction, this sum will have to be paid to the NGO that resorted, as well as “to public entities”. That is to say, the State itself, of course.
