Member States provide an annual assessment of air quality in comparison to EU air quality thresholds. Commission Decision 2004/461/EC provides a questionnaire to be used by the Member States for the annual reporting under the Framework Directive and the related four Daughter Directives 1999/30/EC, 2000/69/EC, 2002/3/EC and 2004/107/EC. Member States have to divide their entire territory into zones. Zones can be regarded as the primary territorial units for assessment and management of air quality under the air quality directives. Consequently, unambiguous definition of all zones is needed. Member States have employed different approaches for the definition of their zones. Some Member States have divided their territory into a single set of zones serving all pollutants. Other Member States have defined a single base set of zones and modified some of the zones for the application to particular pollutants. Where a Member State has distinguished different sets of zones in relation to health protection and ecosystem/vegetation protection respectively, a single location can be situated in several zones, e.g. in a zone defined for all pollutants except lead and in another, larger zone defined for lead. More information about EU air quality standards is available on the DG Environment web site at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/standards.htm. Pursuant to Article 22 of Directive 2008/50/EC, Member States may notify to the Commission when in their opinion the conditions are met in a given zone or agglomeration for postponing the attainment deadline for the limit values for nitrogen dioxide and benzene, or for being exempt from the limit values for PM10. More information is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/legislation/time_extensions.htm . Additional information is available in The annual technical overview and analysis of the reports submitted by Member States (http://acm.eionet.europa.eu/databases/aq-questionnaire/annual_reports_aqq.html). Zones are designated for the following pollutants: B – Benzene; BaP – Benzo(a)pyrene; C – Carbon Monoxide; L – lead; AsCdNi – Heavy metals: Arsenic, Cadmium, Nickel; NH – Nitrogen Dioxide for human protection; NV – NOx for vegetation protection; O – ozone; PM10 – particulate matter less than 10 microgrammes; PM25 – particulate matter less than 2.5 microgrammes; SE – SO2 for ecosystems protection; SH – SO2 for human protection. ************ In this revision 2, Montenegro was added to the SE and NV datasets. ************

Member States provide an annual assessment of air quality in comparison to EU air quality thresholds. Commission Decision 2004/461/EC provides a questionnaire to be used by the Member States for the annual reporting under the Framework Directive and the related four Daughter Directives 1999/30/EC, 2000/69/EC, 2002/3/EC and 2004/107/EC. Member States have to divide their entire territory into zones. Zones can be regarded as the primary territorial units for assessment and management of air quality under the air quality directives. Consequently, unambiguous definition of all zones is needed. Member States have employed different approaches for the definition of their zones. Some Member States have divided their territory into a single set of zones serving all pollutants. Other Member States have defined a single base set of zones and modified some of the zones for the application to particular pollutants. Where a Member State has distinguished different sets of zones in relation to health protection and ecosystem/vegetation protection respectively, a single location can be situated in several zones, e.g. in a zone defined for all pollutants except lead and in another, larger zone defined for lead. More information about EU air quality standards is available on the DG Environment web site at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/standards.htm. Pursuant to Article 22 of Directive 2008/50/EC, Member States may notify to the Commission when in their opinion the conditions are met in a given zone or agglomeration for postponing the attainment deadline for the limit values for nitrogen dioxide and benzene, or for being exempt from the limit values for PM10. More information is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/legislation/time_extensions.htm . Additional information is available in The annual technical overview and analysis of the reports submitted by Member States (http://acm.eionet.europa.eu/databases/aq-questionnaire/annual_reports_aqq.html). Zones are designated for the following pollutants: B – Benzene; BaP – Benzo(a)pyrene; C – Carbon Monoxide; L – lead; AsCdNi – Heavy metals: Arsenic, Cadmium, Nickel; NH – Nitrogen Dioxide for human protection; NV – NOx for vegetation protection; O – ozone; PM10 – particulate matter less than 10 microgrammes; PM25 – particulate matter less than 2.5 microgrammes; SE – SO2 for ecosystems protection; SH – SO2 for human protection.

The dataset described here presents the geometries of the zones and agglomerations reported since 2013 by Member States in compliance with the Ambient Air Quality Directives and successfully validated by the EEA's Quality Control system. In accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 5 of 2011/850/EU on the reciprocal exchange of information and reporting on ambient air quality, Member States shall make available the information set out in Part B of Annex II to this Decision on the delimitation and type of zones and agglomerations established in accordance with Article 3 of Directive 2004/107/EC and Article 4 of Directive 2008/50/EC and in which the assessment and management of air quality is carried out. .... These data flows are described on Reportnet's ROD (Reporting Obligation Database): https://rod.eionet.europa.eu/obligations/670 and https://rod.eionet.europa.eu/obligations/693. More meta-information on zones, including data providers can be found at http://aideb.apps.eea.europa.eu