Greece has violated EU law because of persistent air pollution in Athens following a ruling by the ECJ. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg ruled that the annual limit value for the air pollutant nitrogen dioxide in the Athens metropolitan area has been systematically exceeded since 2010 up to and including 2020. In addition, Greece has not taken appropriate measures to keep air pollution as low as possible. The EU Commission had sued.

Greece is not the first EU country to have been convicted in such a case. France and Germany have also been reprimanded by the ECJ in the past because the limit values ​​for nitrogen dioxide were exceeded. The values ​​​​were "systematically and continuously" exceeded from 2010 to 2016 in 26 German cities, it was said at the time.

Scientists have been warning of the health consequences of bad air for years. According to experts, anyone who inhales a lot of fine dust has an increased risk of heart problems, strokes and lung diseases. As recently as November, a report by the EU Environment Agency (EEA) came to the conclusion that an estimated 240,000 people would die in 2020 in the 27 EU countries as a result of fine dust pollution. In Germany, the estimated number of deaths was 28,900.