The Dutch government has failed to protect its citizens against noise pollution from Schiphol. The state has “systematically subordinated” the interests of residents of Amsterdam airport to the interests of the airport and the airlines.
The court in The Hague determined this on Thursday. The judge ruled in proceedings on the merits initiated against the state by the Right to Protection against Noise Pollution (RBV) foundation. This organization represents residents of Schiphol from places such as Aalsmeer and Uithoorn.
The government must amend legislation and regulations for noise pollution at Schiphol as quickly as possible. The court also orders the state to apply and enforce the applicable legislation and regulations (now: the Airport Traffic Decree 2008) within twelve months.
The Hague judge does not impose a maximum number of flights on Schiphol, as RBV had demanded. That is up to politics, the judge said. The government has announced measures to limit Schiphol's capacity, but these reduction plans met with a lot of (legal) resistance.
Nor can the judge impose on the state that the Netherlands implements the noise standards of the World Health Organization WHO. These are stricter than the rules that the Netherlands currently applies. The WHO standards are not binding, the judge said.
Undisturbed private life
According to the court, the government violates Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This protects the right to an undisturbed private life.
Citizens must tolerate the government interfering in their personal lives to some extent, for example because of the economic importance of Schiphol, but then there must be a fair weighing of interests and citizens must be able to claim practical and effective legal protection. Both conditions are violated.
According to the judge, there is no balanced consideration of the interests of all those involved in Schiphol's situation. In recent years, the government has first determined how many flight movements the Amsterdam airport can handle and only then has it looked at how the negative consequences for local residents and the environment should be reduced.
The legislation and regulations failed in various areas, the judge said in the summary of the 59-page judgment. For example, the state failed to enshrine new noise agreements for Schiphol, the New Standards and Enforcement System, in law.
Furthermore, only residents who live close to the airport, within the so-called 'noise contours', were taken into account. But also further away from the airport, for example in the Bollenstreek and in the vicinity of Heiloo and Alkmaar, thousands of people suffer from serious annoyance and sleep disturbance due to passing aircraft.
According to the judge, this concerns at least 186,000 seriously inconvenienced people and 50,000 people who are disturbed in their sleep. The judge stated that there is no need for discussion that such nuisance can lead to a health hazard.
Guarantees
The government must now adjust the laws and regulations for noise at Schiphol. The judge demands that the legal protection of individual residents of Schiphol is guaranteed. Nowadays they are often rejected by the courts when they complain about noise pollution. This is measured according to a method with various averages. This never makes it clear what the nuisance is to a specific individual.
RBV wanted citizens to receive legal and human rights guarantees against the “sickening noise and pollution” caused by air traffic to and from Schiphol. Legal noise standards apply to rail and road traffic to protect local residents, the foundation states. According to the foundation, such standards are not sufficient for aviation.
RBV wanted the judge to impose a penalty on the government, a fine for every day that the requirements are not met. The Hague judge does not do that, even though he showed understanding for RBV's fear that the government may now, as in the past, be in little haste to improve the rules for Schiphol. “I would have imposed a penalty on any other party,” said the judge, “but it is within constitutional relations in the Netherlands that the state complies with the convictions.”
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