Bid to cut noise levels

Date: 13/07/2000

By Gareth Harding

EUROPEAN cities with more than 100,000 residents would be forced to keep the public informed about noise levels and draw up action plans to curb excessive noise under a planned new law due to be unveiled by the European Commission next week.

The draft framework directive on noise, which has been four years in the making, is intended to combat one of the public nuisances most frequently cited by Union citizens. Commission officials estimate that 100 million people in the EU - or almost a quarter of the bloc's population - are "annoyed" by current noise levels and more than 10 million citizens have their sleep disturbed by the rumble of cars, planes and trains.

The planned legislation aims to set targets for reducing the number of people effected by noise pollution. But to the dismay of environmentalists, the Commission will shy away from proposing harmonised noise standards. The European Environmental Bureau said it was "difficult to understand" why the Commission had not drawn up a set of Union-wide limits, as originally promised.

However, Commission officials argue that would be "politically impossible" to get agreement on common noise standards given implacable opposition from EU governments to the idea. The UK, in particular, has made it clear that it will not accept harmonised values and lobby groups representing the EU's powerful road and rail sectors have also joined forces to dilute the proposals.

At present, a third of the Union's 15 member states do not have any national noise limits. However, officials believe that once comparable figures are available, peer pressure will force these member states to take the problem more seriously and take action to combat it. They also expect the public to campaign more actively for cuts in noise levels as a result of the planned law, which would require cities and airport authorities to publish information about the extent of the problem on the Internet.

The draft directive drawn up by Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom's officials would oblige authorities to assess noise levels using commonly-agreed methods and to draw up 'noise maps' showing which areas are most affected by the problem. These would not just include urban areas but also those around airports, motorways and train lines.

The EU executive also plans to publish proposals soon for a separate directive aimed at reducing noise from the railway sector, and is confident that MEPs will push for harmonised limits for airport noise when they study the proposals later this year.

The draft framework directive on noise, which has been four years in the making, is intended to combat one of the public nuisances most frequently cited by EU citizens.