ClientEarth, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

In the present case, the Government had admitted that it was in breach of article 13 of Directive 2008/50/EC (OJ L152/1) which required Member States not to exceed limit values of nitrogen dioxide set for 1 January 2010. The claimant sought to argue that the Government was and is obliged to put to the European Commission a plan for reducing nitrogen dioxide levels below limit values by 1 January 2015. The judge did not accept this reading of article 22 of the Directive. If a State would otherwise be in breach of its obligations under article 13 and wishes to postpone the time for compliance with that obligation, then the machinery provided by article 22(1) is available to it, but it is not obliged to use that machinery. It can, as the United Kingdom Government had done, simply admit its breach and leave it to the Commission to take whatever action the Commission thinks right by way of enforcement under article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.