Germany failed to cut city's air pollution, rules EU top court

EU court judges in previous rulings also chided France and the U.K. for "persistently" exceeding limits.

Germany was handed a stinging rebuke from the European Union’s top court for consistently failing to clean up dirty air in its cities from Berlin to Cologne, endangering public health.

“Between 2010 and 2016, Germany systematically and persistently exceeded the limit values for nitrogen dioxide,” the EU Court of Justice said in a ruling on Thursday.

A 2018 crackdown on dirty air by the European Commission included the U.K., Germany and France, with the EU regulator accusing them of failing to meet limits on nitrogen oxide, which is mostly caused by road traffic and industry. EU court judges in previous rulings also