The interplay of European air quality policies and technological advancement to reduce anthropogenic emissions avoided a dramatic deterioration of air quality in Europe and beyond over the last 40 years (e.g. fuel quality directives reduced global SO₂ emissions by 88 %, while the EURO standards led to a 50 % reduction of PM_2.5). The story told by the EDGAR retrospective scenarios can be informative for designing multi-pollutant abatement policies also in emerging economies.