ROAD SAFETY
(21125)
7014/00
COM(00) 125
|
Commission Communication: Priorities in EU road safety: Progress
report and ranking of actions, and draft Council Resolution on the
Improvement of Road Safety.
|
| Legal base:
| — |
| |
| Document originated:
| 17 March 2000 |
| Forwarded to the Council:
| 21 March 2000 |
| Deposited in Parliament:
| 14 April 2000 |
| Department: |
Environment, Transport and the Regions
|
| Basis of consideration:
| SEM of 13 June 2000 |
| Previous Committee Report:
| HC 23-xviii (1999-2000), paragraph 4 (17 May 2000)
|
| To be discussed in Council:
| 26 June 2000 |
| Committee's assessment:
| Politically important |
| Committee's decision:
| Cleared |
Background
7.1 On 17 May 2000, we reported on a Commission
Communication: Priorities in EU road safety: progress report
and ranking of actions. It recorded progress in implementation
of the second road safety Action Programme, which is due to run
to 2001. The report prioritised key elements of that Programme.
It included two Recommendations, one of which encouraged governments
and local and regional authorities of Member States to establish
a practice of calculating costs and effects of road safety measures,
to increase investments in those measures and to develop mechanisms
that will enable the benefits of road safety measures to be felt
more directly by those taking the decisions and bearing the costs
of their implementation. The Minister generally welcomed the report
but made no comment on the Recommendation to which we have referred.
We asked the Minister whether he supported it and left the document
uncleared.
The Minister's response
7.2 In his Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum
of 13 June 2000, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at
the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Lord
Whitty) indicates that the UK considers that the cost benefit
approach in the Commission Recommendation is the right way forward
and that the UK is making progress in that direction in carrying
out the Government's Road Safety Strategy.
7.3 He also attaches to his Explanatory
Memorandum a draft Council Resolution prepared by the Presidency
in response to the Commission Communication and which will be
discussed at the Transport Council on 26 June 2000. He says:
"This welcomes the submission
of the Commission Communication on Road Safety; asks for progress
on road safety to be accelerated; and asks the Commission to press
ahead with legislative proposals and the promotion of investigative
and information activities. The Resolution supports the Commission
Recommendation on costs and effects of road safety measures."
He tells us that the Resolution is "consistent
with UK policy and the Government proposes to support the Resolution",
whilst making it clear that "on detailed matters covered
by the Resolution, the Government will consider and consult as
appropriate when firm proposals are produced on the individual
measures."
Conclusion
7.4 We thank the Minister for responding
in his Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum to the question we
had raised and for setting out the Government's stance on the
draft Council Resolution. We have no further questions to ask
and clear the document accordingly.
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