Review of the Implementation of Directive 2002/49/EC on Environmental Noise

Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise

In the 1996 Green Paper on Future Noise Policy, the Commission addressed noise in the environment as one of the main environmental problems in Europe. Following the Green Paper, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise. The general aim of the overarching Directive is 'to define a common approach intended to avoid, prevent or reduce on a prioritised basis the harmful effects, including annoyance, due to exposure to environmental noise'.

The Directive basically requires the competent authorities in the Member States to progressively draw up strategic noise maps and adopt action plans for agglomerations, major roads, major railways and major airports; these are defined by the Directive and designated or delimited by the Member States.

The purposes of the strategic noise maps are to determine the exposure to environmental noise while using common noise indicators, to inform the public on environmental noise and its effects and to report to the Commission some data on exposure to noise. One objective is to use common assessment methods. Until these methods are established by the Commission, the Member States may use interim methods, or national methods providing equivalent results. The Commission published non-legally binding recommendation on interim methods.

The purposes of the action plans are to prevent and reduce environmental noise 'where necessary and particularly where exposure can induce harmful effects on human health' and to protect 'quiet areas'. According to the Directive, the Member States are exclusively competent to fix the standards (noise limits, noise targets, noise values to consider for the designation and protection of quiet areas etc.) which cause competent authorities to consider or enforce noise mitigation measures. In addition, the measures within the plans are at the discretion of the competent authorities.

As far as agglomerations having more than 100 000 inhabitants are concerned, the Directive puts a special emphasis on the noise emitted by road traffic, rail traffic, airports, sites of industrial activities and ports. Outside agglomerations, the Directive addresses the noise emitted by the major roads, major railways and major airports. The first sets of maps and plans should now have been drawn up for:

• 162 agglomerations with more than 250 000 inhabitants;
• 82 575 km of major roads having more than 6 million vehicle passages a year;
• 12 315 km of major railways with more than 60 000 train passages a year;
• 76 major civil airports with more than 50 000 movements a year.

A table summarizing outcome related requirements and corresponding deadlines under Directive 2002/49/EC can be found on the Commission's website.

The European Commission together with the European Environment Agency¹ is working on the assessment of the reports on noise maps and on the summaries of action plans submitted by the Member States.

Directorate General JRC provides technical support for the Environmental Directorate by preparing common European noise assessment methods as required by Article 6 (2) of the aforementioned Directive, with the aim of ensuring comparable and reliable data on noise exposure at EU level.

(1) The European Topic Centre based in Barcelona provides technical assistance to the EEA in the quality analysis of the noise reports.

This project is being delivered by a consortium consisting of Milieu Ltd, Risk and Policy Analysis Ltd. and TNO. The lead organisation is Milieu Ltd., with RPA providing input on policy and impact assessment and TNO providing technical expertise on noise control measures.