The Council of State ordered the French State on Friday to pay two fines of 5 million euros for not having respected all the air pollution thresholds set by the European Union.
Regretting that the French State has not managed to enforce European air pollution thresholds in certain urban areas of France, the Council of State has taken the decision to sanction the French State with two fines of 5 million euros each. Although improvements have been noted, the persistent overruns in Paris and Lyon justify these financial sanctions. Let’s see what the reasoning of the highest French administrative court was.
Paris and Lyon still remain too polluted and condemn France
The Council of State ordered the French state, in 2017, to reduce levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particles (PM10) in 13 urban areas of the country. In 2020, judging the efforts to be insufficient in 8 of these areas, penalties of 10 million euros per six months of delay were imposed. Despite improvements, Paris and Lyon continue to exceed nitrogen dioxide thresholds years later.
In detail, positive results were observed for fine particles. Toulouse and Aix-Marseille now respect the thresholds, even if the Marseille-Aix zone still presents a fragile situation, with measurements just below the regulatory limit of 40 μg/m3, at 39 μg/m3 more precisely.
Concerning Paris, which was the last area to exceed the only pollution limits in terms of fine PM particles10no more exceedances were observed in 2022. The capital nevertheless remains in the spotlight for its exceedances in terms of nitrogen dioxide, just like Lyon.
Penalties shared between associations fighting against air pollution
It is therefore the persistence of exceedances of nitrogen dioxide measurements in Paris and Lyon which justifies the financial sanctions. In Lyon, one station still shows a significant exceedance (47 μg/m3), and current measurements still do not guarantee compliance with the thresholds. On the Paris side, the excess persists, in eight measuring stations, with values which could reach (52 μg/m3) for two of them. And here, no significant measures have been implemented since the 2022 decision.
The Council of State deplores in particular the reduction in the ban on the circulation of vehicles with a Crit’Air sticker 3 to 1er January 2025. The revision of the atmosphere protection plan is certainly underway, but the results should not be immediate.
To salute the efforts in the other zones, the Council of State reduced the two fines to 5 million euros each, for the second half of 2022 and the first half of 2023, halving the initial amount. The penalty will be distributed between the Friends of the Earth association, which contacted the administration on this subject in 2017, and other entities engaged in the fight against air pollution. The Council of State has planned to re-examine the actions of the State in 2024.
11