The acting Ombudsman of Spain, Francisco Fernández Marugán, has asked the Madrid City Council to review the regulation of the recently approved Sustainable Mobility Ordinance to avoid a reduction in the protection of air quality in the city.
The new ordinance, now known as Madrid Distrito Centro and which replaces Madrid Central, allows access to low-emission zones and low-emission zones of special protection to private vehicles of companies and the self-employed and represents, in the opinion of the Ombudsman, an “environmental setback” about which he warned the Consistory last August.
In addition, the Ombudsman considers that the regulation of special protection zones can be “improved” and that it is necessary to establish “an additional regulation that reduces administrative discretionality with respect to the granting of exceptional permits”.
As Fernández Marugán warns in a letter sent to the City Council, “under the pretended equalization with residents, a more lax regime is reached”, given that now more vehicles will enter than what was allowed with the previous regulation, without there being an official estimate of the number of cars that will circulate in the low emission zone of special protection, nor technical reports that support that the adoption of this measure does not mean a setback in environmental protection.
Thus, the Institution has urged the City Council to “review the regulation of the Low Emission Zone of Special Protection Downtown District, guaranteeing, at least, the level of environmental protection existing in the Ordinance of 2018 and the Agreement of the Governing Board of the same year”.
The Ombudsman also believes that the restrictions applied to the Plaza Elíptica Special Protection Zone are very limited, both in terms of territorial scope and scope, since access is only restricted to vehicles with an A badge, and within that, exceptions are still established.
Therefore, the Ombudsman also wants the regulation of this new special protection zone to be reviewed, in line with the report of the General Directorate of Sustainability and Climate Change of the Ministry of Environment, Land Planning and Sustainability of the Community of Madrid, dated February 9, 2021.
Reports from the Community of Madrid
Some of the Ombudsman’s misgivings about the environmental impact of the new mobility ordinance have also been noted by the Community of Madrid.
In fact, in a report last February, the Department of the Environment suggested limiting access and circulation, at least to vehicles with a ‘B’ badge, in the Plaza Elíptica Low Emission Zone of Special Protection. Likewise, it considered “convenient” to study the extension of the surface occupied by this zone, since it estimated that the “scarce surface may cause a rerouting effect in vehicles, which would border the zone, achieving the undesired effect of increased emissions and therefore of worsening air quality.”
With regard to the Special Protection Zone of the Center District, in another report dated May, the Regional Ministry pointed out that “the additional emissions produced in this zone and their impact on air quality should be studied to ensure that the objective established in Article 22.2.b of the preliminary draft is met: to reduce the levels of environmental pollution and enable compliance with the air quality limit values and thresholds established in the community and state regulations on air quality and environmental protection”.
Evaluation and control measures and sanctioning regime
On the other hand, the Ombudsman has urged the Madrid City Council to establish as soon as possible the monitoring, control and evaluation measures contemplated in the new mobility ordinance so that the evolution of pollution levels in the special protection zones can be analyzed and the general scope of the entry into force of the modifications made can be verified.
The Ombudsman has also requested that “the possibility of including in the Air Quality Ordinance the appropriate references to low emission zones” be assessed.
At present, there is no relationship between the regulation of low emission zones in the Sustainable Mobility Ordinance and the regulation contained in the Air Quality and Sustainability Ordinance. In practice, this affects the sanctioning regime, which is framed in the legislation on traffic and road safety and in the local regime legislation, and not in the legislation on air quality and climate change.
Finally, the Ombudsman has reminded the City Council that the infringement procedure against Spain for failing to comply with the European directive on air quality is still open. Said procedure was interrupted after the approval of the 2018 regulations, now repealed, so the Institution has warned that “it could be reactivated if the Community authorities consider that the regulations promoted by the City Council do not meet the minimum standards of protection of air quality”.
