Räikkönen to join Commissioner Tajani at EYF on Road Safety

Publication date: 10 July 2008

Formula 1 World Champion, Kimi Räikkönen, will take part in the European Youth Forum for Road Safety in Brussels on 10 July, at the invitation of Mr Antonio Tajani the Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Transport. The Forum will bring together young people from all 27 Member States. Young police officers and a firefighter with experience of rescuing road accident victims will also take part.

As an influential role model for young people, Mr Kimi Räikkönen will make clear to the Forum that when driving on public roads, safety is his first concern and that it should be the first priority for all drivers.

Road safety is indeed of paramount importance for Vice-President Tajani and he finds it unacceptable that about 20% of those killed every year on the European roads are young people between 18 and 25, while they represent only around 10% of the EU population. 25 young people are killed every day on EU roads.

The issue has to be tackled in different ways:
1) Of course rules must be respected and enforced. The Commission proposed a new EU law on enforcement in March 2008, aiming to make sure drivers who endanger the safety of others when driving outside their home Member State cannot escape sanction and in particular they they have to pay any fines imposed by the aauthorities in the Member States they visit. The Commission hopes that the European Parliament and the Council (the Member States) will now agree on this proposal

2) The need for rules has to be explained, in particular to young people. So a key goal of the meeting on 10 July 2008 is to support the work of youth associations. This follows up the first European Road Safety Day last year, which was dedicated to young drivers. Issues such as drink driving were addressed. Working with youth associations to reach young people, for example in bars, cafés and clubs, is a top priority.

3) The Forum will also be an opportunity to explain to young people European action aiming to cut road deaths and to consult them on what more could be done.

A press-point hosted by Vice-President Tajani with Mr Räikkönen will be organised on 10 July at 16h00 in the Berlaymont (VIP Corner - ground floor).

Road Safety page on Europa:
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/roadsafety/index_en.htm

Contacts:
Mark English +322/296.24.10 – mark.english@ec.europa.eu
Maria Quillinan-Meiland +322/299.40.14 – maria.meiland@ec.europa.eu