Article 20

1. Where, in a given zone, there is a risk that the levels of pollutants will exceed one or more of the alert thresholds specified in Section 4 of Annex I, Member States shall establish short-term action plans indicating the emergency measures to be taken in the short term in order to reduce the risk or duration of such an exceedance. However, where there is a risk that the alert threshold for ozone will be exceeded, Member States may refrain from establishing such short-term action plans when there is no significant potential, taking into account national geographical, meteorological and economic conditions, to reduce the risk, duration or severity of such an exceedance. Where, for particulate matter (PM10 and PM2,5), the potential to reduce the risk of such an exceedance is severely limited, taking into account local geographical and meteorological conditions and specificities of domestic heating systems, Member States may establish a short-term action plan that focuses only on specific actions aiming to protect both the general public and sensitive population and vulnerable groups, as well as easily understandable information on recommended behaviour to reduce exposure to the measured or forecasted exceedance. 2. When establishing the short-term action plans referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, Member States may, depending on the individual case, provide for effective measures to control and, where necessary, temporarily suspend activities which contribute to the risk of the respective limit values or target values or alert threshold being exceeded. Member States shall also take into consideration the list of measures set out in Annex IX for their short-term action plans, and depending on the share of the main pollution sources to the exceedances to be addressed, they shall consider including, where appropriate, in those short-term action plans measures in relation to activities such as transport, construction works, industrial installations, agriculture and the use of products and domestic heating. Specific actions aiming at the protection of sensitive population and vulnerable groups, including children, shall also be considered in the framework of those plans. 3. Member States shall consult the public in accordance with Directive 2003/35/EC, and the competent authorities, which, by reason of their responsibilities in the field of air pollution and air quality, are likely to be concerned by the implementation of the short-term action plan, on draft short-term action plans and any significant updates thereof prior to their finalisation. 4. When Member States have established a short-term action plan, they shall make available to the public and to appropriate organisations such as environmental and health organisations, consumer organisations, organisations representing the interests of sensitive population and vulnerable groups, organisations representing healthcare professionals and other relevant health-care bodies and the relevant industrial federations both the results of their investigations on the feasibility and the content of specific short-term action plans as well as information on the implementation of those plans. 5. Short-term action plans shall be communicated to the Commission within 1 year of their adoption in the framework of the annual reporting pursuant to Article 23. 6. When establishing their short-term action plans indicating the emergency measures to be taken, Member States may request the Commission to organise an exchange of best practices in order to allow the requesting Member States to benefit from the experience of other Member States.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-16 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.