ABSTRACT
2.3 The European Commission
Noise pollution is a serious concern in Europe and remains a major health problem which is the reason why the European Commission has identified it as one of the priority issues to be dealt with. However, it is only recently that the EU has developed a noise policy dealing with environmental noise. Initially noise was controlled by prescribing maximum acceptable levels of noise for certain aircrafts and machinery.85 At the European level noise was placed traditionally at the tail end as opposed to other environmental problems such as water and waste.86
The issue of environmental noise was first addressed by the European Commission when it published a Green Paper on Future Noise Policy in 1996.87 This Green Paper was supported by the European Parliament in 1997 and the need was expressed to have comparable data that could be relied on that could describe the effects of environmental noise.88 In pursuance of the Future Noise Policy the EU enacted the Environmental Noise Directive, more commonly referred to as the END 2002/49/EC. This Directive was drawn up and ultimately adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on 25 June 2002.89
85 S Wolf and N Stanley Wolf and Stanley on Environmental Law 6ed (2014) 425-432.
86 Ibid.
87 Ibid
88 S Battersby Clays Handbook of Environmental Health 20ed (2011) 798-802.
89 Wolf and Stanley Wolf and Stanley on Environmental Law (note 85).
26 The European Environmental Noise Directive (the “END”)90 was adopted as part of a long-term strategy to reduce the number of people affected by noise by introducing legislation that relates to noise reception as opposed to noise sources for the first time ever.91
The END is considered to be one of the main EU legal instruments on noise which standardizes Member States efforts in addressing noise and is a piece of legislation that is not directly applicable in member states but has to be transposed into national legislation.92 The END requires that member states designate the relevant competent authorities that are responsible in their country to implement the Directive accordingly.
The main aim and overall objective of the END is to identify and have a common approach across the EU in addressing and reducing the negative and harmful effects, including annoyance, caused by environmental noise exposure.93
The END requires that noise maps must be drawn up and corresponding action plans drafted to respond to noise issues. There is a further need to ensure that the public remains informed at all times and the use of harmonized noise indicators and computational measures to ensure that the data collected can be compared in a standardized way.94
A common noise indicator and a common methodology for noise calculation and measurement around airports were identified in the Commission Communication of 1 December 1999 on Air Transport and the Environment in the hope of making air transportation environmentally
90 END 2002/49/EC - The END requires Member States to monitor noise sources in their country, on a five-year rolling programme, through the production of strategic noise maps and action plans for major airports (more than 50,000 movements (ATM) per year) and agglomerations (more than 250,000 inhabitants). Directive 2002/30 established rules and procedures with regard to the introduction of noise-related operating restrictions specifically:
(a) Lay down restrictions consistently at airport level to ensure that fewer people are affected by the harmful effects of noise. (b) To provide a framework which safeguards internal market requirements. (c) To promote development of airport capacity in harmony with the environment. (d) To facilitate the achievement of specific noise abatement objectives at the individual airports. (e) Enable measures to be chosen from those available with the aim of achieving maximum environmental benefit in the most cost effective manner.
91 European Parliament, Policy Department Economic and Scientific Policy: Towards a Comprehensive Noise Strategy (November 2012).
92 Wolf and Stanley Wolf and Stanley on Environmental Law (note 85).
93 Ibid.
94 Ibid.
27 sustainable.95 The purpose of this communication was to provide a strategy to integrate environmental concerns into sectoral policies on air transportation to include improvement in technical environmental standards on noise and gaseous emissions as well as assisting airports in their environmental endeavors.
The END also makes provision for a day-evening-night noise indicator (Lden) for overall annoyance, a day-noise indicator (Lday) for annoyance during the day-time, and a night-time noise indicator (Lnight) for sleep disturbance. The END also calls for dose effect relations for noise exposures to be determined. This is whereby working groups were formed and studies conducted by member states of a very technical nature to evaluate noise situations in terms of affected populations. The study looked at the effect of noise on the quality of sleep, the number of awakenings caused by noise disturbance and the increase of medicinal use as noise exposure increased.96
The END also provides for the setting of noise limits. It is also useful to allow Member States to use supplementary indicators in order to monitor or control special noise situations.
Besides the END there are other directives such as EC Directive 92/14/EEC, which was replaced by Directive 2006/93/EC. These directives regulate the operation of chapter 3 certified civil subsonic jet airplanes by taking into account environmental, technical and economic factors.97 Various Member States have established operating restrictions to assist in the reduction of the escalating noise problems in and around airport precincts. Noise abatement operational procedures are in force which includes the use of preferential runways as well as the use of specific routes.98
95 N Islam et al Environmental Law in Developing Countries (2001) 130-132.
96 European Commission Working Group on Health and Socio-Economic Aspects Position Paper on Dose-Effect Relationships for Night time Noise (2004), available at http://www.eukn.eu/fileadmin/Lib/files/EUKN/2010/1710- dose-effect.pdf, accessed 15 July 2015.
97 EC Directive 2006/93 on the limitation of the operation of aeroplanes covered by Part II, Chapter 2, Volume 1 of Annex 16 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, second edition (1988) – This directive banned Chapter 2 aircraft from landing in the EU from 1st April 2002.
98 M Murphy et al, Study on the Balanced Approach to Noise Management and its Influence on the Economic Impact of Air Transportation, Institute of Air Transport and Airport Research, March 2011, available at
http://www.euroexpress.org/uploads/ELibrary/DLR_Study_Balanced_Approach_2011_final.pdf, accessed 15 July 2015.
28 In March 2002 the EC adopted the Directive 2002/30/EC99 that stipulated rules and procedures for noise related operating restrictions that could be adopted at individual airport levels in a consistent manner.100 Although this Directive is legally binding for all 27 Member states within the EU, the legislation does provide for flexibility on how it can be incorporated into national law.101
This directive has various elements which includes that there must be an adoption of the balanced approach to noise management which includes the four basic elements as defined by ICAO, that there must be publication of noise objectives for the airport and lastly a discretionary interest to restrict marginally compliant Chapter 3 aircrafts from operating.102 The UK incorporated the Directive into UK legislation by the Aerodromes (Noise Restrictions (Rules and Procedures) Regulations 2003.103
These three directives are the most relevant when it comes to aircraft noise and most EU member states have developed and aligned their noise laws with these directives and have started to compile their noise action plans accordingly.
The END and the Balanced Approach Regulation remain the key legislative instruments under which environmental noise is being monitored and actions taken by member states.
In terms of the END, noise maps are being produced using harmonised noise Lden (day-evening- night equivalent level) and Lnight (night equivalent level) indicators. These will be used to
99 Arpad Szakal, Aircraft Noise – A Regulatory Overview, available at http://www.aviationlaw.eu/wp/wp- content/uploads/2013/09/Aircraft-Noise-A-Regulatory-Overview.pdf , accessed 15 July 2015.
101 Besides the Directive 2002/30/EC the European Commission introduced Directive 2002/49/EC regarding the assessment and management of environmental noise which obliges all community airports with greater than 50 000 movements to prepare strategic noise maps and action plans for the reduction of noise issues.
102 Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Environmental Noise Directive: Noise Action Plan 2013- 2018 (2014), available at http://www.heathrow.com/file_source/HeathrowNoise/Static/Noise_Action_Plan.pdf, accessed 21 July 2015.
103 Aerodromes (Noise Restrictions) (Rules and Procedures) Regulations No. 1742 2003.
29 assess the numbers of people annoyed and sleep-disturbed due to noise throughout Europe.104 The public is being consulted all times and informed about noise exposure, its effects, and any measures that will be taken to address the identified noise sources.105 In England the Directive is implemented through a series of Regulations, led by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Crucially, the END does not set any limit values, and leaves it to the discretion of the competent authorities as to whether or not to implement their action plans. For action plans relating to aviation noise sources, airport operators are the competent authorities.
Literally a decade after the approval of the END there are some huge successes which have managed to address the objectives that it sought out to address. Noise mapping has been able to identify the extent of the population affected by the noise and that live within the contours. By having this information relevant strategic noise action maps have been devised to address the problems. Of the 79 major airports in the EU, 28 of them have adopted action plans.106
In Germany the issue of public participation assisted vastly with the development of their noise action plans. This was done via a broad based campaign on noise on the internet, television, press, mail and ad-hoc flyers. This promoted citizens participation during the process.107