€3 billion mass claim in the works against Dutch State over Schiphol noise

A group of local residents and interest groups is preparing a mass claim of 3 billion euros against the Dutch State over Schiphol Airport. The claim stems from a ruling by the court in The Hague last month. According to that judge, the State has been infringing on the human rights of local residents for some time by not taking enough account of their health.

The court gave the State a year to solve the problems, but according to the organizations behind the mass claim, including Platform Vlieghinder Kennemerland and Minder Hinder Gooise Meren, the government must also pay for the damage that local residents have suffered for years. A summons is expected in at least six months, said campaign leader Sidney Vollmer of the organizations behind the mass claim.

The organizations expect approximately 600,000 claimants to join their suit. “Multiplied by the number of years that damage has been suffered, this amounts to a claim of approximately 3 billion euros. A third of this must go directly to the victims, a third to the improvement of rail infrastructure, and the rest to nature restoration. If the State won’t do this on its own initiative, then we will help.”

According to Vollmer, the fact that it takes at least six months before a summons is issued has to do with the preliminary legal investigations that still need to be done. “It depends on the lens through which you look at the problem. We have to figure out how many people we can make the claim on behalf of.” Determining the damage suffered also plays a role. “Noise is very easy to measure, but determining where exactly harmful substances come from is more challenging. These are things that we have to find out whether they fall within or outside our claim.”

According to the court in The Hague, the State did not comply with the laws and regulations when weighing interests. The government acted in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights for years. According to the judge, the state gave priority to Schiphol's "hub function" and growth and only then considered the interests of local residents. The policy that was in place is also based on noise measurements "of which it has been clear since 2005 that they do not provide the complete picture of (the distribution and severity of) noise pollution," according to the judge. That is why it must now introduce rules that better protect the interests of locals. That could mean, among other things, fewer flights per year.