9 Road safety
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12603/10
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COM(10) 389
| Commission Communication: Towards a European road safety area: policy orientations on road safety 2011-2020
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| Legal base | —
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| Document originated | 20 July 2010
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| Deposited in Parliament | 30 July 2010
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| Department | Transport
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 3 November 2010
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| Discussion in Council | 2 December 2010
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
9.1 The Commission published a Communication: European Road
Safety Action Programme: Halving the number of road accident victims
in the European Union by 2010: a shared responsibility in
June 2003. [25]
The programme included a target of halving the number of road
deaths by 2010. Whilst the numbers of fatalities have substantially
decreased during the period of the programme, the target is unlikely
to be met.
9.2 During the period of programme the Commission
published a draft Directive to facilitate cross-border enforcement
in the field of road safety, which is still under scrutiny,[26]
and a Communication, Action plan for the Deployment of Intelligent
Transport Systems in Europe, and a draft Directive laying
down a framework for deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems
in the field of road transport and for interfaces with other transport
modes.[27]
The document
9.3 In this Communication the Commission sets out
a fourth European Road Safety Action Programme, for the period
2011-2020. Its objective is to halve the number of EU road deaths
by 2020. The target is expected to be achieved through a mix of
measures, including sharing best practice, research, awareness
campaigns and in some cases possibly regulation aimed at making
road users, vehicles and infrastructure safer. The Commission
also intends to make progress on a target for reducing road traffic
severe injuries and proposes to add an "injuries reduction
target" to the action programme.
9.4 In the light of the failure to attain the death
reduction figure of the previous programme the Commission has
identified seven strategic objectives for the next decade, to
ensure continued progress towards reducing casualties and improving
road safety in the EU:
- improve education and training
of road users — the Commission proposes to promote improvements
to the learning to drive process, with a focus on young novice
drivers, and to create an EU road safety education and training
strategy to foster a lifelong "educational continuum"
for drivers;
- increase enforcement of road rules — the
Commission proposes to implement measures on the cross border
exchange of information, in the context of the draft Directive
on cross-border enforcement in the field of road safety, to ensure
that all EU nationals are treated equally for traffic offences
(for example penalties and fines) and is seeking to develop a
common road safety enforcement strategy, which could include the
introduction of speed limiters in light commercial vehicles and
use alcohol interlock devices;
- safer road infrastructure — the Commission
plans to ensure that EU funds are only granted to infrastructure
compliant with road safety and tunnel safety Directives and is
looking to encourage Member States to apply these safety measures
to their urban and rural roads;
- safer vehicles — the Commission plans to
make proposals to encourage progress on active and passive safety
of vehicles, such as motorcycles and electric vehicles, will make
proposals to encourage the harmonisation of roadworthiness tests
and technical roadside inspections and proposes to assess the
impact and benefits of co-operative systems (for example, where
vehicles exchange data and interact with the infrastructure and
other vehicles) to identify the most beneficial applications,
with a view to recommending relevant measures for their deployment;
- promote the use of modern technology to increase
road safety — the Commission highlights the role of Intelligent
Transport Systems and within the context of the Intelligent Transport
Systems Action Plan and Intelligent Transport Systems Directive
plans to examine the possibility of retrofitting commercial vehicles
and cars with advanced driver assistance systems (for example,
Lane Departure Warning) and accelerating the deployment of e-call
(that is, an in-vehicle safety device which manually or automatically
generates a call to the nearest emergency service in the event
of an accident) and extending e-call to motorcyclists, heavy-duty
lorries and buses;
- improve emergency and post-injuries services
— the Commission proposes to work with Member States to
establish a common definition of serious and minor injuries with
the view to developing a global strategy for action to address
road injuries and to promote best practice on emergency service
responses to incidents; and
- protect vulnerable road users — the Commission
plans to make proposals to monitor and further develop technical
standards for protection of vulnerable road users, particularly
powered two wheels vehicles, by introducing periodic inspections
and increasing the safety of cyclists and other vulnerable road
users.
9.5 The Communication is accompanied by a staff working
document which provides an assessment of the results of each of
the 62 measures described in the previous programme and of the
outcome of a consultation of stakeholders about the proposed successor
plan.
The Government's view
9.6 The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department
for Transport (Mike Penning) first tells us that:
- the Government shares the Commission's
objective of improving road safety and saving lives;
- with the current road safety strategy and targets
for Great Britain due to expire at the end of 2010, the Government
is considering its options for road safety policy beyond 2010,
including the role of a new road safety framework;
- the Government would be concerned if any EU-wide
casualty reduction targets were taken to imply target levels for
individual Member States;
- different Member States will be at different
starting points, so the UK, which has the safest roads in the
world, would find it disproportionately difficult and expensive
to achieve a 50% reduction which the Commission has proposed as
a target for the EU; and
- the Government would also have concerns if the
idea of adding an "injuries reduction target" were adopted
as an EU wide target, as opposed to Member States being able to
choose to have their own injury targets — there are different
definitions across the EU for injuries and it is not clear what
different actions would be taken as a consequence of an EU target
for injuries.
9.7 The Minister then addresses the possibility of
legislative proposals, saying that:
- the nature of the Communication
means that the details of the proposed actions have not been provided;
- the Government notes that the Commission is seeking
harmonisation in areas such as driver training, enforcement activity,
road-worthiness tests and technical road side inspections and
vehicle technologies;
- the Government would need to carefully consider
these proposals once they have been developed further and will
work with the Commission and other Member States to ensure that
the actions taken are proportionate;
- as a central principle, the Government does not
believe further EU legislation is generally the right way forward
to deliver improvements in road safety; and
- any formal legislative proposals subsequently
arising from this document would be subject to individual parliamentary
scrutiny in the normal way, but would need to demonstrate a very
strong case that further EU legislation was appropriate for the
Government to support them.
Conclusion
9.8 Promotion of road safety is important. But,
whilst clearing this document, we note the Government's reservations
about some of the Commission's proposals. And, as the Minister
suggests, the Government will examine carefully any legislative
proposals that arise from this Communication.
25 (24592) 9713/03: see HC 63-xxviii (2002-03), chapter
11 (2 July 2003). Back
26
(29587) 7984/08 + ADDs 1-2: see HC 16-xxiii (2007-08), chapter
4 (4 June 2008) and HC 16-xxxvi (2007-08), chapter 6 (26 November
2008). Back
27
(30312) 17563) + ADDs 1-2 (30313) 17564 + ADDs 1-2: see HC 19-vii
(2008-09), chapter 4 (11 February 2009), HC 19-xi (2008-09), chapter
6 (18 March 2009) HC 19-xix (2008-09), chapter 6 (10 June 2009)
and HC 19-xxii (2008-09), chapter 1 (1 July 2010) and Gen Co
Debs, European Committee A, 20 July 2009, cols 3-14.
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