A sad day for Road Safety in Europe…

Publication date: 08 June 2007

The European Parliament’s Transport Committee has irresponsibly rejected the opportunity to save up to 1,300 lives per year on Europe’s main road network

The Transport Committee’s voting session on 5 June left many observers shocked and disappointed, as the long-awaited Commission proposal for a Directive on Safe Road Infrastructure Management was rejected in less than 10’. MEPs decided by a one-vote majority (19 to 18) in favour of an amendment rejecting the proposed Directive as a whole.

Despite the several years of preparation by the European Commission, in combination with internal and external consultations, exchanges of national expertise and close involvement (and support!) of the major civil society stakeholders, the 64 amendments tabled in response to the encouraging report drafted by the Committee’s rapporteur have now been swept away in one single blow.

The undersigning parties would like to express their deep disappointment following this display of “backdoor policy making”, which has clearly shown the influence of the larger EU Member States on their MEPs, resulting in a highly unlikely coalition of political factions against a Directive that would favour the European citizens, whose interests the Parliament is supposed to uphold.

At least 600 lives would be saved and 7,000 serious injuries prevented annually if the European Union lived up to its political, moral and legal obligation of providing guidance to ensure safety is integrated in all phases of road planning, design, construction, operation & maintenance, through the cost-effective road management practices as set out in the Commission’s proposal. Moreover, the European road safety targets set in 2001 (a 50% reduction in fatalities by 2010) will not be reached unless road authorities rise up to the challenge of absorbing increasing road traffic, while offering safer driving conditions to all road users.

We believe the European Commission's proposal, which offers Member States a toolkit of safety management procedures, is the right way to ensure Europe overcomes today's unacceptable patchwork of national standards resulting from decades of under-investment which needlessly put lives at risk. The Commission’s proposal is now set to be voted for or against at the upcoming July Plenary Session. Fortunately the possibility still exists of amending the proposal in a sense that both the European Parliament and the Member States would feel comfortable with, without eroding the objective of providing safer roads for Europe’s citizens.

All categories of road users – motorists, professional drivers, (motor-) bikes and pedestrians – stand to gain from safer road infrastructure. That is why the undersigning organisations have decided to rally behind this Joint Statement, in an effort to raise awareness among those Members of the European Parliament who still believe that the highest good to be protected in the EU should be its citizens. We deserve nothing less than a European network of roads that correspond to the highest level of infrastructure safety available throughout the Member States’ recognized best practices!

Signatory organisations

Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile

European Union Road Federation
International Road Federation
Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations

European Asphalt Pavement Association

Confederation of Organisations in Road Transport Enforcement

Association des Constructeurs européens de Motocycles

To download the pdf version of this press release please click here.

pr_vote_on_infra_directive_joint_statement_final.pdf (132 KB)