Data and reporting

EU Member States are required to ensure that up-to-date information on ambient concentrations of the different pollutants is regularly made available to the public and to other organisations. This is done by providing information on websites, in the press and also in public spaces. The information needs to be regularly updated and the connection to the different limit and target values needs to be clear. When information or alert thresholds are exceeded, Member States need to inform the public about this and the actions that are taken. See the different EU Directives for more precise details on this obligation.

Publically available information

At EU level there are a number of sources that provide information to the public. The European Air Quality Portal managed by the European Environment Agency (EEA) links to several databases on air pollutants in the EU. These include

AirBase: the public air quality database system of the EEA. It is based on the information from the continuous monitoring of air quality, collected under the Exchange of Information Decision and EEA priority data flows. It contains information submitted by the participating European countries until 2012.
Air Quality Index and Air Quality Index App: a website and an app developed by the EEA to provide the public with Europe-wide near real time data for five key air pollutants. The website also contains multiple links to national and regional air quality websites.
Central Data Repository: contains a collection of documents delivered by each country on various topics including air quality.
EEA’s annual Air Quality in Europe report: provides an overview of the data and its implications.

Background

Commission Implementing Decision of 12 December 2011 lays down rules on the reciprocal exchange of information and reporting on ambient air quality for Directives 2004/107/EC and 2008/50/EC.

EU Member States and the European Commission, with extensive support from the EEA, have prepared a Common Understanding to facilitate the implementation of the Decision 2011/850/EC:

Member States' and European Commission's Common Understanding of the Commission Implementing Decision (i.e. IPR Guidance part I - Version 2.0.1)
IPR guidance part I – Version 1 (note: as of 15 March 2018 this is replaced by the above ‘Common Understanding’)
IPR guidance part II

Further information

More details about the reporting mechanism can be found on the EEA’s Ambient Air Quality Portal.