Judgment_paragraph 44 · European Commission v French Republic (C-636/18)

44The same applies to that Member State’s argument relating to the non-representative nature of the exceedances of the NO₂ limit values. First, with regard to the fact that the Commission took only the annual and hourly values of NO₂ concentration in ambient air from the measuring station which registered the highest values in the zone concerned, it is sufficient to recall that the Court has held that Articles 13(1) and 23(1) of Directive 2008/50 must be interpreted, by reference to the general scheme and the purpose of the rules of which those provisions form part, as meaning that, in order to establish whether a limit value with an averaging period of one calendar year, as laid down in Annex XI to that directive, has been exceeded, it is sufficient that a pollution level higher than that value be measured at a single sampling point (judgment of 26 June 2019, Craeynest and Others, C‑723/17, EU:C:2019:533, paragraphs 60, 66 and 68). It follows that the Commission was entitled to take, for each of the 12 zones or agglomerations covered by the present action, the annual and hourly values of NO₂ concentration in ambient air from the measuring station which registered the highest values in the zone or agglomeration concerned.