5. Conclusions and Recommendations

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

1. Data for 1997 have been received by the European Commission from all Member States. In addition, information for 6 other European countries has been received.

The 15 EU Member States provided information on ozone concentrations for a total 984 monitoring stations. Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Norway, Poland and Slovakia provided information on ozone concentrations for 100 stations.

2 The threshold value set for the protection of human health was exceeded substantially in all reporting countries.

The threshold value of 110 µg/m³ (8h-average) was exceeded substantially (in about 25% of the reported exceedances the 8h-average concentrations exceeded 165 µg/m³).

3. The threshold values set for the protection of vegetation were exceeded substantially and in almost all EU Member States.

The threshold value of 65 µg/m³ (24h average) is reported to be exceeded substantially (by up to a factor 3), widely (in all reporting countries) and frequently (nearly all countries report exceedances during more than 100 days at one or more of their stations). The threshold value of 200 µg/m³ (hourly average) is exceeded largely and widely (in total 13 countries, 10 EU Member States) on a limited number of days.

4. The threshold value for information of the population was exceeded in almost all EU Member States during a limited number of days.

Exceedance of the information threshold value of 180 µg/m³ (1 h average) was reported for stations in 15 countries (12 EU Member States). For one station (Lykovrissi, Athens) an exceedance of the warning level of 360 µg/m³ (1h average) was reported.

5. The spatial coverage and quality documentation of the data need further improvement.

Depending on the local situation, the ozone monitoring stations are characterised as rural, urban, street or other (e.g. industrial). Further work towards a harmonised classification system is recommended.

The present subsets of rural stations and urban stations are not representative for the land area of the EU and the urban population, respectively.

Spatial coverage and documentation of the monitoring data quality need improvement if the level of protection of human health and ecosystems in Europe to elevated ozone levels is to be fully assessed. Member States are encouraged to reconsider their ozone measuring networks in the light of the spatial coverage of ozone monitoring stations. It is recommended to improve the documentation on the representativity and on the surrounding of the existing stations.

6. It is recommended to improve the reporting of ozone precursors (NO_x, NO₂ and VOC).

NO_x measurements should be co-located with the ozone monitoring stations as NO_x can be used as an indicator of the station representativity. Moreover, precursor concentrations will be needed for testing of compliance with VOC and NO_x emission reduction programs.

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