Malta urged to address construction and entertainment noise

On paper, Malta meets EU noise requirements. The country has largely transposed the Environmental Noise Directive into national law, faces no infringement proceedings related to transport noise, and reports one of the lowest proportions of urban residents exposed to road traffic noise in the European Union.

Yet the reality is different for Maltese citizens. The report, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions following Petition No 1150/2024, shows that the main sources of public complaints—construction, fireworks and entertainment noise—fall outside EU legislation.

In Malta, 21% of citizens consider noise a top environmental priority, more than double the EU average of 9%. A local survey conducted in 2019 showed that on a scale of 1 to 5, the average level of concern about noise was 3.9, highlighting widespread worry.

While the EU directive covers road, rail, air and industrial noise, it excludes the sources that dominate everyday complaints in Malta. Construction noise, fireworks and entertainment disturbances are not subject to mandatory strategic noise mapping or official action plans. As a result, the law designed to protect citizens leaves the issues causing the most harm unregulated, creating a silent crisis across the islands.

Construction noise

Construction remains the leading source of citizen complaints but lies entirely outside the directive. Local regulations, such as the Construction Management Site Regulations and the Building and Construction Authority Act, offer some protection, including restrictions on working hours in tourism zones. Yet the report notes a significant shortcoming—these rules rely on time-based restrictions without establishing decibel limits for construction sites.

The study strongly recommends that the Environment and Resources Authority issue a unified guidance document setting clear requirements across all noise sources. While it does not dictate a precise numerical limit, the report emphasises the urgent need for thresholds to close enforcement gaps and ensure meaningful protection. Consolidating scattered regulations into a single national framework could improve public awareness, compliance and oversight.

Moreover, noise also comes at a cost for landowners. The report estimates that every decibel over 50 dB(A) reduces property value by 1.5%, and a plot with 70 dB(A) exposure costs 30% less than a plot with 50 dB(A) exposure.

Entertainment outlets and fireworks falls outside the scope of the EU directive despite these being the sources of highest bother

Noise from fireworks

Fireworks and entertainment venues are also major sources of noise excluded from the EU directive. Public consultations and Petition No 1150/2024 reveal strong concern, as fireworks can cause permanent health issues such as hearing loss and tinnitus even at levels below official reporting thresholds.

The report recommends that Malta voluntarily include non-directive sources, including fireworks, in strategic noise mapping and action plans. It further suggests that the European Commission consider expanding the directive in future revisions to cover these sources, promoting a holistic soundscape approach focused on creating the right sound environment rather than merely mitigating noise after it occurs.

Treat clubs like factories

While industrial noise falls under the directive, Malta has only seven licensed industrial facilities within its remit. The report recommends managing the entertainment industry through an industrial model, mandating best available techniques (BAT) to address the noise sources currently driving the majority of citizen complaints in Malta.

For entertainment venues, the report highlights the Lisbon model, in which bars and nightclubs install real-time sound limiters linked to police monitoring platforms. In Lisbon, annual complaints fell from 104 to just 15 over five years, demonstrating the potential effectiveness of this approach.

Traffic noise impact underestimated

Transport noise management in Malta suffers from significant shortcomings, largely due to the absence of legally binding limits or reduction targets under the directive. Official data suggest Malta has the EU’s lowest percentage of urban residents exposed to road noise, but this is likely underestimated, as the directive only mandates mapping for major infrastructure and agglomerations of more than 100,000 inhabitants and fails to account for noise exposure from smaller roads or less populated regions. This leads to data that does not fully reflect the lived reality of all citizens.

Road traffic nevertheless accounts for all 20 annual noise-related premature deaths in Malta. Air traffic affects over 3% of the urban population, the second highest rate in the EU, largely because Malta’s extreme population density places residents close to flight paths.

Institutional failures and delays

The report identifies chronic administrative delays as a major implementation failure. Malta’s Noise Action Plan for 2019 to 2024 was only published in 2023, while the subsequent plan due by 18 January 2025 remained unpublished as of January 2026. Transparency remains a significant barrier. Most official websites are described as almost void of any content or lacking searchable noise data. This leaves citizens largely unaware of official efforts, although Infrastructure Malta is mentioned as a rare exception for its comprehensive noise coverage and searchability.

Report calls on Commission to widen scope of directive

The report concludes that Malta’s noise problems stem not from a failure to transpose the directive, but from a disconnect between legal coverage and the sources most affecting citizens.

To address the limited publicly-available data, the report recommends expanding coverage to non-directive sources—construction, entertainment and fireworks—consolidating fragmented legislation into a unified national framework, and adopting modern approaches such as the Lisbon and Welsh models to manage noise more effectively.

It also calls on the European Commission to consider mandatory noise limits and to extend the directive’s scope to cover sources that disproportionately affect high-density countries like Malta.