Dutch NGO wins summary proceedings against Dutch State on air quality

The 7^th of September, the Dutch NGO Milieudefensie won summary proceedings against the Dutch State on air quality. This case fits in a true trend following from the European Union Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC, which regulates the maximum tolerable levels of pollution in the air caused by inter alia nitrogen and particulate matter. In the UK, the NGO Clientearth has litigated on failing air policy all the way up to the CJEU and back to the UK High Court again, winning every case against the government. In France, Les amis de la terre France obtained a similar result last July before the Conseil d’État. And only one day before the Dutch judgment, the German NGO Deutsche Umwelthilfe reached a comparable outcome before the Verwaltungsgericht Stuttgart. In this blogpost, I focus on the Dutch case.