1. Ambient Air Quality Directives
Fitness Check
Ambient Air Quality Directives
22th EIONET Workshop on Air Quality Assessment and Management
European Commission
DG ENV C.3
Clean Air

2. Introduction to the fitness check approach

3. What is a fitness check?
Evaluations (or fitness checks, if the focus is on several, interlinked Directives or regulatory framework for a policy sector) are a key, retrospective exercise – to assess what has happened and looks at what caused any change and how much might reasonably be credited to EU action.
Evaluations provide an evidence-based critical analysis of whether EU actions are fit for purpose and delivering as expected. Robust evaluations help to identify key learning points which can then be fed back into the decision-making process.

4. What is the purpose of a fitness check?
The goal of evaluations and/or fitness checks is to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and EU added value of specific parts of the EU acquis, thus promoting better/smart legislation, making it more responsive to current and future challenges and helping improve implementation.
This includes identifying excessive administrative burdens, overlaps and/or synergies, gaps, inconsistencies and/or obsolete measures which may have appeared over time, and considering the cumulative impact of EU legislation and activities.

5. How is a fitness check done?
Evaluation and/or fitness check reports should be carried out in line with the European Commission’s guidelines for evaluations and should be of high quality and respect the following principles: comprehensiveness, proportionality, independency objectivity, transparent judgment and evidence-based.

6. Findings of a fitness check
At the end of an evaluation, appropriate follow-up actions must be identified and fed into the decision-making cycle.
The findings of the fitness check will serve as a basis for drawing policy conclusions on the future of the relevant regulatory framework.

7. Fitness Check of the Ambient Air Quality Directives

8. Fitness Check of the Ambient Air Quality Directives
In 2010 the Commission announced its approach for Smart Regulation , which is a continuous process, affecting the whole policy cycle (from the design of a piece of legislation, to implementation, enforcement, evaluation and, where justified, to revision).
In this context, the Commission has now initiated a Fitness Check of the two Ambient Air Quality Directives and related reporting.
The exercise will be finalised by the end of 2019.

9. The Fitness Check of the AAQ Directives
This fitness check will look at the two complementary EU Ambient Air Quality (AAQ) Directives, i.e. Directives 2008/50/EC and 2004/107/EC, as well as the corresponding Implementing Decision 2011/850/EC and Commission Directive EU/2015/1480.
This fitness check will complement and build on the extensive analysis developed as part of the air policy review of 2013 (COM (2013) 918) which remains fully valid (and informed the Clean Air Programme for Europe as well as the revised NEC Directive 2016/2284/EU).
The fitness check will focus on the period 2008 to 2018, and will cover the experience in implementing the provisions of the above directives across all Member States.

10. The Fitness Check of the AAQ Directives
In line with the principles of Better Regulation, this fitness check will assess whether Ambient Air Quality (AAQ) Directives have been designed to achieve their objectives without entailing disproportionate costs and continue to be justified.
It will assess the performance of the AAQ Directives against five criteria: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and EU added value.

11. The Fitness Check of the AAQ Directives
The fitness check is timely for several reasons:
More than 400,000 premature deaths each year in the EU due to air pollution and poor air quality. Significant compliance gaps remain to date.
The air quality standards set in the Directives have been in place for almost two decades. Evidence base regarding health and environmental impacts has evolved significantly. WHO air quality guidelines are, in most instances, more stringent than EU applicable thresholds. Technical feasibility and implementation experience in Member States has also improved.
The changing context should help deliver a sustained downward trend in emissions in the perspective.

12. Overarching topics to be addressed
To what extent have the AAQ Directives successfully defined methods to monitor and assess air quality, to ensure that representative and high quality assessment regimes are in place in all Member States?
To what extent have the AAQ Directives established clear and actionable air quality standards that are in accordance with scientific advice to minimise harmful effects on human health and ecosystems?
To what extent have the AAQ Directives helped ensure that reliable, objective and comparable information on air quality and the attainment of air quality standards is made public and reported to the Commission?
To what extent have the AAQ Directives facilitated action to avoid, prevent or reduce the adverse effects of poor air quality, and triggered air quality plans that have led to measurable improvements of air quality?
This evaluation process will also include identifying any excessive administrative burdens, overlaps and/or synergies, gaps, inconsistencies and/or obsolete measures which may have appeared over time.

13. The Fitness Check of the AAQ Directives
The evaluation will include desk studies and interviews with relevant stakeholders and will involve assessment of existing information as well as evidence gathering with Member States public authorities at different levels (national, regional, local), together with public consultations to get the views of a wider group of stakeholders, such as citizens and different interested organisations.

14. Roadmap of the Fitness Check of the Ambient Air Quality Directives

15. Roadmap
The roadmap provides a first description of the evaluation design, communicating the context, purpose and scope of the evaluation and outlining the proposed approach.
The roadmap of the fitness check was published in July Feedback period: 26 July August 2017.
Publication of the roadmap has enabled stakeholders to provide their feedback;

16. Stakeholder feedback on roadmap https://ec. europa
The public consultation on the Roadmap of the Fitness Check of the Ambient Air Quality Directives resulted in 13 responses online, and one additional response sent via .

17. Next steps: stakeholders consultations

18. Stakeholder consultation
Stakeholders will be consulted in line with the Better Regulation Guidelines: (a) to confirm the topics and issues covered by this fitness check (via Roadmap), (b) gather factual information, data and knowledge about the implementation, and
(c) to solicit views and opinions on the extent the Directives have met their objectives.
Stakeholders to be consulted include the Member States’ competent authorities at all relevant levels (i.e. national, regional and local), civil society and non-governmental organisations, organisations representing industry and trade, researchers and scientific community, international organisations (UNEP, UNECE, OECD, WHO), as well as citizens.

19. Stakeholder consultation
two stakeholder workshops will be organized.
The first workshop will take place or during the online public consultation and will assist in gathering evidence, in providing answers to the evaluation questions and in confirming the issues for the evaluation.
The second stakeholder workshop will take place before the finalisation of the fitness check and shall aim to receive final feedback that would assist in the completion of the fitness check.
An online public consultation will be run within the framework of a support contract to give an opportunity to stakeholders to provide their opinions on the subject. .

20. Timeline & next steps: an indicative calendar
Launch Fitness Check
Clean Air Forum
Stakeholder Meeting
Launch Tender
2017
2018
Public Consultation
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
ISSG
Stakeholder Workshop
2019
Final Report
Commission Report / SWD
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Action Plan