Article 22

1. Member States shall ensure that the public as well as appropriate organisations such as environmental and health organisations, consumer organisations, organisations representing the interests of sensitive populations and vulnerable groups, organisations representing healthcare professionals and other relevant health-care bodies and the relevant industrial federations are informed, adequately and in good time, of the following: air quality in accordance with Annex X; location of sampling points for all air pollutants, as well as information on any issues in complying with data coverage requirements per sampling point and pollutant; any postponement decision pursuant to Article 18; air quality plans and air quality roadmaps as provided for in Article 19; short-term action plans established pursuant to Article 20; the effects of exceedances of limit values, target values, average exposure reduction obligations, average exposure concentration objectives, alert thresholds and information thresholds in a summary assessment; the summary assessment shall include, where appropriate, further information and assessments on the environment as well as information on pollutants covered by Article 10 and Annex VII. 2. Member States shall establish and make available through a public source, in an easily understandable manner, an air quality index covering hourly updates on at least sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter (PM10 and PM2,5) and ozone, provided that there is an obligation to monitor those pollutants pursuant to this Directive. That index may include additional pollutants, when relevant. Insofar as possible, the air quality index shall be comparable across all Member States and follow WHO recommendations. The air quality index shall build on the air quality indices at European scale provided by the European Environment Agency and include information regarding impacts on health, including information tailored to sensitive population and vulnerable groups. Alternatively, Member States may use the air quality index provided by the European Environment Agency to meet the requirements set out in this paragraph. If a Member State decides not to use the index provided by the European Environment Agency, a reference to that index shall be made available at national level. 3. Member States shall make publicly available information on symptoms associated with air pollution peaks and on air pollution exposure reduction and protection behaviours, and shall encourage its display to the public in locations frequented by sensitive population and vulnerable groups, such as healthcare facilities. 4. Member States shall inform the public of the competent authority or body designated in relation to the tasks referred to in Article 5. 5. The information referred to in this Article shall be made available to the public free of charge by means of easily accessible media and communication channels in a coherent and easily understandable manner in accordance with Directive 2007/2/EC and Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council (22), while ensuring broad public access to that information.

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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.