Access to Justice

The first question in this regard is, whether individual persons have the right to require the elaboration of noise maps and, in the case of refusal, to apply to a court. According to Article 7 of Noise Directive 2002/49/EC, noise maps shall show the noise situation which existed in the previous calendar year. Annex IV no 1 provides that noise maps show either an existing, a previous, or a predicted noise situation, or the exceeding of a limit value or the estimated number of buildings that are exposed to specific noise values, or the expected number of people located in an area that is exposed to noise. These alternative requirements are so vague that a person does not yet know, whether his health is at risk, when he is informed of the number of people living in an area exposed to noise, or when he learns what the average noise level was a year ago; also, Member States have no obligation to fix limit values for noise. This is all the more true as there is no information in Noise Directive 2002/49/EC which indicates to persons from which noise level onwards their health is at risk, since Directive 2002/49/EC does not contain any limit values, target values, alert thresholds or similar information. Article 7 is thus not sufficiently precise to allow a person to rely on its provisions before a court. Rather, it contains an obligation which is addressed to Member States and obliges them to develop noise maps. Citizens' right of access to environmental information does not help either, since provisions of Directive 2003/4/EC give access to existing documents, but do not contain an obligation to public authorities to establish documents.

Article 8 requires the drawing up of action plans "to manage... noise issues and effects, including noise reductions". Such plans must, among others, identify problems and situations that need to be improved, indicate noise-reduction measures already in force and any projects in preparation, indicate measures to preserve quiet areas (Annex V No 1), and should contain estimates concerning the number of people affected by the reduction of the noise (Annex V No 4). These provisions, the general logic of Directive 2002/49/EC and the obligation for Member States to manage noise clearly indicate that noise action plans have the objective to protect human health which is, finally, the very purpose of the whole Noise Directive 2002/49/EC which aims to avoid, prevent or reduce harmful effects to humans who are exposed to too much noise (Article 1).