Brussels, 17/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - To protect fundamental rights - in particular the fundamental right to private and family life, and home, and the right to environmental protection - member states may adopt measures under which penalties are imposed when maximum noise levels, measured on the ground, are exceeded in built-up areas near airports. European law allows measures, which must not be confused with “operating restrictions” under the terms of the relevant directive, to counter noise pollution around airports.
That is the interpretation which Advocate General Pedro Cruz Villalón will put to the Court of Justice in his opinion in Case C-120/10. The Court has to respond to a question from the Belgian Conseil d'Etat following a complaint lodged by the air company EAT, which had been fined for exceeding maximum noise levels for aircraft flying over the Brussels-Capital Region. The Conseil d'Etat has asked whether Brussels-Capital Region rules, its criteria for measuring noise levels from planes (measurement is on the ground whereas, in the directive, noise is measured in the aeroplane itself) and the fines provided for on that basis are in line with Directive 2002/30 (on noise-related operating restrictions at EU airports).
The advocate general says firstly that the Belgian sanctions do not fall into the same category as “operating restrictions” under the terms of the directive. These restrictions are “a prohibition, absolute or temporary, which specifically prevents - and does not merely impede - the access of a civil aircraft to a European Union airport”. Consequently, the Belgian regional regulation does not fall within the scope of the directive. Secondly, the directive does not prevent member states from adopting environmental rules because, “if that were not the case, state action against noise pollution would come to a virtual standstill, with states losing all latitude in the exercise of their environmental, planning and health policies”. (F.G./transl.rt)