Court cancels orders expanding Nursipalu training area

Tallinn Administrative Court has cancelled government orders to expand the Nursipalu military training area and establish environmental measures, ERR reported. The ruling followed complaints from non-profit organisations and local residents.

The court stressed that cancelling the orders does not mean expansion of the training area is fundamentally prohibited. It found no doubts about the state’s threat assessment, the need for expansion or the legality of the location chosen.

However, the court identified shortcomings in both orders. It found that the 2023 order made a decision in principle to expand the training area without sufficient information about the effects on the natural environment and the living environment of local residents.

The environmental impact had been described only superficially, no noise study had been prepared and only a preliminary Natura assessment had been carried out. The court said some potential impacts had also been unlawfully excluded from that assessment.

Regarding the later order, the court found that certain impacts on nearby Natura 2000 protected areas remained unexamined. The Natura assessment was incomplete concerning sensitive bird species for which the Karula bird area is protected, as well as the impact on the Kubija Lake nature area.

The court also found that effective environmental measures had not been established to reduce disruptive noise for residents living around the training area. The state had acknowledged that noise levels near the closest homes would exceed recommended military noise limits, particularly during large-scale exercises.

According to the court, the measures adopted to address the noise were general and contained no specific restrictions or guarantees. They should either ensure compliance with noise limits at all residential buildings or give residents exposed to excessive noise an effective way to avoid having to endure it.

The court also noted that the noise assessment had assumed that firing would not take place at night. That assumption had proved incorrect, while recommended noise limits are lower at night than during the day.

The court said activities with significant environmental impacts must be tolerated when they are necessary in the overriding public interest, no reasonable alternative exists and appropriate measures have been taken to reduce the impact. However, the effects must first be identified and effective mitigation measures developed.

If the shortcomings identified by the court are corrected, the state may be able to issue a largely similar order again with the necessary additions.

The court rejected some complaints because the complainants lacked the right to appeal. Most were individuals living more than 10 kilometres from the expanded training area. The court also found that one company had not suffered a sufficient interference with its freedom to conduct business.

The judgment has not yet entered into force. An appeal may be filed with the Tallinn Circuit Court within 30 days.