News
Air noise: ruling of the European Court of Justice
Regulations - 12/09/2011
The EU Court of Justice has just confirmed the legitimacy of the air noise regulations set up in the Brussels-Capital region in 1999. It is therefore entirely possible to set maximum noise levels measured from the ground for aircrafts overflying the territory.
This ruling follows a dispute between Brussels authorities and the airline European Air Transport (EAT). After an administrative sanction of 56,113 euros in 2007 for exceeding night limit values, EAT appealed the fine, considering that measurements from the ground and not from the source were contrary to the 2002/30/EC directive of March 26th, 2002.
The EU Court of Justice ruled that this approach was not an “operating restriction”, since it was not prohibiting the access to the airport involved, unless it ended up having similar effects to a prohibition of access and hindered the economic activity of the airlines. The Belgian court will now have to check if these measurements have such effects. The Brussels region could then receive the unpaid fines of the sanctioned airlines, for a total amount of several million euros.
The EU Court of Justice ruled that this approach was not an “operating restriction”, since it was not prohibiting the access to the airport involved, unless it ended up having similar effects to a prohibition of access and hindered the economic activity of the airlines. The Belgian court will now have to check if these measurements have such effects. The Brussels region could then receive the unpaid fines of the sanctioned airlines, for a total amount of several million euros.
Regulations - 13/12/2011
The European Commission presented last December 9th a proposal...
