The City of Brussels has joined the other local authorities in lodging objections to flights over the Brussels-Capital Region as a result of the RNP-07L flight path, confirmed local mayor Philippe Close (PS) to Belga News Agency on Friday.
The City of Brussels is now the seventh municipality in the Capital Region to throw its weight behind the Region's legal proceedings – systematically ramping up the pressure on the Federal Government.
In doing so, the City of Brussels aims to defend the interests of its residents and increase pressure on the Federal Government to tackle the ongoing breaches of Brussels’ noise standards.
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The municipality is joining Anderlecht, Schaerbeek, Evere, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Koekelberg and Jette, which are taking a stand against the overflights. More and more municipalities want to make their voices heard on the distribution of air traffic over the capital.
With this new decision, the City of Brussels is also aligning itself with the legal battle waged by the Brussels-Capital Region, which has initiated legal proceedings on several occasions since 2014 against overflights following a change to flight paths.
Legal action was also taken in 2018, 2019 and 2020. In the current proceedings, the Region is seeking a ruling that there have been manifest breaches of environmental standards and that the Belgian State should take measures to put an end to these breaches or significantly reduce them.
The City of Brussels justified its decision to side with the municipalities and the Region as a defence of the quality of life of the people of Brussels. It also explicitly referred to the constitutional right to the protection of a healthy environment.
One of the recurring points of discussion is noise pollution in the early hours of the morning, often affecting the most densely populated and poorest neighbourhoods in the capital – the so-called ‘canal route’.
According to the dossier, measurements by the Brussels Institute for Environmental Management (BIM) indicate significant exceedances between 06:00 and 07:00.
In previous communications, Federal Minister for Mobility Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés) indicated that a proposal is currently under consideration within the Federal Government to resolve the issue.
The government must reach a conclusion and take a decision by 1 October. Crucke also stated that he was not happy with the term "Crucke route", as many people refer to flight path RNP-07L.
"If a plane flies over your house every five minutes, it has a direct impact on your daily life," mayor Philippe Close said. "Although Brussels needs this international airport, the people of Brussels should not continue to bear the consequences of decisions regarding air traffic indefinitely."
