Politiki sodi: il-protezzjoni taċ-ċittadini u tan-natura mit-tniġġis akustiku

- urges the Commission to treat noise as a core public health and environmental issue that also reduces economic productivity and therefore has an impact on the EU’s competitiveness, with the same commitment and positive results as air pollution;

- calls on the European Commission, given the significant loss of healthy life years caused by noise pollution, to consider revising the Environmental Noise Directive, providing for ambitious noise-reduction requirements at EU level and stepping up efforts to reduce noise pollution at source, as well as aligning noise exposure reporting thresholds with those recommended by the WHO, in order to achieve the key objective of the Zero Pollution Action Plan, namely to reduce the number of people chronically disturbed by transport noise by 30% by 2030;

- highlights the need to address biodiversity impacts, given that 29% of Natura 2000 areas are affected by harmful transport noise, which disrupts wildlife behaviour, reproduction, and ecosystem functions;

- calls for better use of existing EU funding instruments to support noise-reduction measures, and urges the EU to ensure dedicated and clearly identifiable funding for noise reduction, including quiet road surfaces, green noise-buffer zones, insulation of sensitive buildings, innovative monitoring technologies and citizen-science initiatives;

- calls on local and regional authorities to continue to incorporate into their urban mobility, spatial and land use plans noise mitigation measures, such as lower speed limits, quieter road surfaces, safe infrastructure for active mobility and increased supply of public and shared transport.