The Constitutional Court in Brno has rejected a motion by a group of senators to repeal the government regulation on protecting health from the adverse effects of noise and vibration [1]. The noise limits currently in force in the Czech Republic thus remain unchanged [1].
The senators' motion
A group of senators, including Jitka Seitlová, Jaromíra Vítková (both from KDU-ČSL) and David Smoljak (STAN), had proposed repealing the government's noise regulation as a whole, or at least the part of the annex containing the corrections used to set noise limits [3][4]. They argued that permitted noise exposure limits had been gradually raised over the years, particularly in transport, while the level of protection against their negative effects had declined [1][4]. According to the senators, the state has repeatedly loosened noise limits since 2011 through amendments in 2016, 2018 and 2022, instead of investing in noise-reduction measures [4]. The Ministry of Health had previously justified this approach as an effort to speed up the project preparation of transport infrastructure, as it stated in the explanatory report accompanying the 2022 amendment [4]. In their motion, the senators described the state of the regulation by saying that “tearing down an old building and putting up a new one seems a more economical approach than fixing numerous shortcomings” [1].
The court's decision
In its ruling, the Constitutional Court found that the noise regulation is in accordance with both the constitutional order and the law [1][2]. The judges did not accept the senators' argument that the state had in recent years systematically abandoned the protection of public health [3]. At the same time, however, the court warned that the repeated loosening of limits creates a risk of gradually weakening protection against the adverse effects of noise [1][2]. According to the court, every future change to the limits will need to carefully balance the interest in infrastructure development against the right to a favourable environment [1][2]. The Constitutional Court had already rejected a similar motion to repeal the regulation once before, though at that time largely on formal grounds [3].
Content of the regulation
The regulation sets various noise limits depending on the type of protected space and on the time of day or night, and also distinguishes between transport structures sited and approved before 1 January 2001 and those approved after that date [3]. Since 1 July 2023, the limits in some categories have been raised by five to 13 decibels [3]. For motorways, roads and other highways sited and approved before 2001, the daytime hygiene limit was raised from 60 to 68 decibels [3]. The increase was most pronounced for third-class roads, where the government raised the hygiene limit by 13 decibels in 2022, which, according to the senators, corresponds to an almost twentyfold increase in noise energy [4]. According to the senators, for this much higher limit to actually be exceeded, traffic on district roads would have to increase twentyfold, which they say is physically impossible [4].
Criticism and disputes over noise
The amendment to the regulation, in force since July 2023, was already criticised back in 2022 by the then Public Defender of Rights, Stanislav Křeček, who argued that the proposal amounted to a gradual abandonment of efforts to move closer to the noise levels recommended by the World Health Organization rather than a preservation of public health protection [4]. Some municipalities also criticised the amendment in an open letter to the then prime minister Petr Fiala, stating that as of 1 July 2023 nothing would compel developers to implement noise-reduction measures in places where municipalities had previously been able to require them [4]. In recent years, disputes over noise limits have also concerned specific locations, such as the area around the D1 motorway near Dluhonice near Přerov and near Bosonohy, as well as the construction of the Prague Ring Road near Běchovice and Březiněves [4].
Related articles: Constitutional Court
Chronology
- — The Constitutional Court rejected a group of senators' motion to annul the government decree on protection of health from adverse effects of noise and vibration, so noise limits in the Czech Republic remain unchanged. ČTK / České noviny ČTK / České noviny
Sources
- ČTK / České noviny — 7 October 2026
- ČTK / České noviny — 7 October 2026
- Novinky.cz — 7 October 2026
- Seznam Zprávy — 7 October 2026