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Zagreb - The Croatian Parliament resumed its extraordinary session on Wednesday with a discussion on amendments to the Protection Against Noise Act proposing measures to prevent excessive noise emissions, reduce the existing noise levels to the permissible levels, and align with EU law.
State authorities, local and regional government units, legal and natural persons are required to ensure protection against noise nuisance, while inspections are done by sanitary inspectors from the State Inspectorate, said MP Ivan Kirin of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).
Anka Mrak Taritaš of the Civic Liberal Alliance (GLAS) asked if it was possible to arrange that church bells did not ring after midnight, especially in small tourist towns where visitors complain about the noise, to which she was told that the church bells were exempt from the law. She also drew attention to the problem of apartment buildings with shops and cafes or restaurants that can be a source of noise nuisance.
Silvano Hrelja of the Croatian Pensioners' Party (HSU) agreed with her, calling for the matter to be addressed interdepartmentally.
Noise second biggest cause of illness
Social Democrat Renata Sabljak-Dračevac announced the SDP's support for the bill saying that it would align national law with that of the EU and provide citizens with much better noise protection.
Tomislav Tomašević of the left-green bloc welcomed the bill, noting that noise was the second biggest cause of illness in humans, after air pollution.
Miro Bulj (Bridge) said that everything was done in the interest of profit, adding that EU laws are diligently copied but not obeyed. He underscored traffic as one of the main sources of noise.