EU Air Quality Standards

The EU air quality standards and objectives are summarised in the table below. These apply over different periods of time because the observed health impacts associated with the various pollutants occur over different exposure times. Under EU law, a limit value is legally binding from the date it enters into force subject to any exceedances permitted by the legislation. For a target value, the obligation is to take all necessary measures that do not entail disproportionate costs to ensure that it is attained, and so it is less strict than a limit value.

Directive 2008/50/EC introduced additional PM2.5 objectives targeting the exposure of the population to fine particles. These objectives are set at national level and are based on the average exposure indicator (AEI). This is determined as a 3-year running annual mean PM2.5 concentration averaged over the selected monitoring stations in agglomerations and larger urban areas, set in urban background locations to best assess the PM2.5 exposure of the general population.