The protection of air quality is regulated by legislation at European and national level. This legislative framework is constantly updated and improved. This article briefly presents its structure, with the aim of outlining the dynamics of the field, but also the contribution, joint efforts of the member states to promote and adopt legislative packages, policies, strategies and programs that have had and continue to have as their main objective the reduction of air pollution and the raising of ambient air quality standards. Due to the application of European Union legislation on pollutant emissions, the reduction of their atmospheric emissions has proved to be significant over the last twenty years. The EU member states are obliged to take over the Community legislative provisions and transpose them into national law, as it happened in Romania by adopting Law no. 104 / 15.06.2011. This law has been amended and supplemented in line with the entry into force of new EU directives, decisions and regulations aimed at protecting the atmospheric environment. Climate change, which affects the entire planet, has required a new approach to European legislation, which is to limit global warming to below 1.5°C, so that the EU becomes climate-neutral by 2050. The novelty of this study consists in the summary review carried out on such a wide area as air quality legislation. The synthesis presented will be useful to any specialist operating in the environment field in Romania and not only.