Sound level of motor vehicles: protecting European citizens from high levels of noise

The Parliament is taking steps to provide a higher level of noise protection for European citizens. MEPs are trying  to counter the public health and environmental effects of noise emissions from motor vehicles in particular by adopting new legislation that will harmonise sound limits across the EU.

According to EU Member States, at least half of the population in urban areas is exposed to noise levels above 55 dB as a result of ambient road traffic. The purpose of the proposed Regulation is to ensure a high level of health and environmental protection as well as safeguarding the internal market for motor vehicles.

Background

The need for a higher level of protection for EU citizens became more urgent as more information about the health impacts of noise became available.

The European Commission's Green Paper on Noise estimated in 1996 that around 20% of the then EU population suffered from noise levels that health experts consider to be unacceptable.

Over the years, lots of research work, including large EU-funded projects, has been dedicated to the quantitative assessment of the relationship between environmental noise and its effects. The common ground of the studies was that noise generates harmful effects. These findings were confirmed by a 2008 WHO report.

Commission's proposal

The proposal from the European Commission for a European strategy on clean and energy-efficient vehicles announced that the Commission was also going to present a proposal in 2011 to amend the respective legislation to reduce the noise emissions of vehicles.

The objective is to update the requirements for the type-approval system (Vehicle Type Approval is the confirmation that production samples of a design will meet specified performance standards) as regards the sound level of motor vehicles. In particular, it introduces a new test method for measuring noise emissions, lowers noise limit values and introduces additional sound emission provisions in the EU type-approval procedure. The proposal repeals Directive 70/157/EEC.

To this end, laws in the EU Member States with regard to the permissible sound level of motor vehicles shall therefore be harmonised, including the different technical requirements which would then not only provide a consistent application throughout the EU but also ensure clear and large-scale conditions for car manufacturers in the EU.

The EPP Group's position

The EPP Group supports the overall purpose of the Commission proposal as a step forward in countering the public health and environmental effects of noise emissions from motor vehicles and the need for an adequate level of noise protection for European citizens.

Salvatore Tatarella MEP, EPP Group spokesman on the new legislation, underlines the necessity to bring the legislative proposal in line with the latest technical developments and to improve the overall feasibility of the requirements, especially for the industry that has to respect product cycles.

With the support of the EPP Group, substantive technical adjustments were proposed, in particular the methods for the measurement of noise levels, the categorisation of the vehicles concerned as well as the provisions governing limit values.

The EPP Group supports the inclusion of small volume manufacturers in the proposal (in their own category).

What's next?

Parliament will vote on the subject in plenary on Wednesday 6 February. The EPP Group hopes that MEPs will express a strong position that gives a clear signal to the Council in advance of trialogue negotiations. This would be crucial to speeding up the implementation of the Regulation and to improve EU citizens' life with renewed rules on the sound level of motor vehicles.