Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of the Environmental Noise Directive in accordance with Article 11 of Directive 2002/49/EC

On 25 June 2002, Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and the Council relating to the assessment and management of environment noise (Environmental Noise Directive, END) was adopted. This was a step forward in developing the EU noise policy.

The purpose of the Directive is to "define a common approach intended to avoid, prevent or reduce on a prioritised basis the harmful effects, including annoyance, due to the exposure to environmental noise".

To achieve this, the Directive requires the Member States to carry out a number of actions, in particular:
1. To determine the exposure to environmental noise through noise mapping
2. To adopt action plans based upon the noise mapping results
3. To ensure that the information on environmental noise is made available to the public.

The Directive also provides a basis for developing further EU measures to reduce noise emitted by different sources. This implementation report is prepared in accordance with Article 11 of the END which required the Commission to assess in particular:
- the need for further EU actions on environmental noise
- a review of the acoustic environment quality in the EU based on the data reported by the Member States.

In preparation of this report, the Commission has received input from the European Environment Agency (EEA) and carried out a number of supporting studies where additional information can be found [see Related URLs].

European Environment Agency: Topics: Environment and health: Noise http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/human/noise

European Commission: DG Environment: Noise: Evaluation of Environmental Noise Directive http://ec.europa.eu/environment/noise/evaluation_en.htm

---