LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - A European Union Court upheld on Thursday a complaint by the city authorities of Paris, Brussels and Madrid against an EU rule change on vehicle emissions they said increased pollution and partly overturned the regulation.
The General Court said the European Commission's 2016 regulatory amendment raising the limits on nitrogen oxides emissions from cars and vans went beyond the powers of the EU executive and broke EU human rights and other laws.
"The General Court upholds the actions brought by the cities of Paris, Brussels and Madrid and annuls in part the Commission’s regulation setting excessively high oxides of nitrogen emission limits for the tests for new light passenger and commercial vehicles," it said in a statement.
"The Commission did not have the power to amend the Euro 6 emission limits for the new real driving emission tests."
(Reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Brussels; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)