We had hoped to bring you the in-depth details of a final package of the EU Commission Motorcycle Regulation proposal, (aka the Approval and market surveillance of two – or three-wheel vehicles and quadricycles) from a European Council working party meeting which met this week.
However while we wait for these details, we have had access to a briefing note from the 1st June 2012 and information from a trialogue meeting on the 19th June, both of which are in the public domain.
The briefing note is from the Council Of The European Union to the Permanent Representatives Committee and the subject as regards the proposed regulation is – “Preparation of an informal trialogue”.
The informal trialogue negotiations took place in March and June between the IMCO MEP negotiating team, the Danish Chairman of the European Council Working Party (of Member State Ministries), which aimed at exploring the possibilities for a first-reading agreement, hence to know the full content of this week’s meeting is very important.
Examination
A Working Party on Technical Harmonisation (Motor Vehicles) examined the proposal on 27 occasions during the Belgian, Hungarian, Polish and Danish Presidencies of the council.
The Danish Presidency is coming to an end therefore the timescale to complete negotiations on this complex and technical dossier will most likely fall to the next Council Presidency: Cyprus, which takes over from Denmark on 1st July.
Meanwhile back to the briefing note from 1st June, which goes through the issues, with a full annex at the end, contains the draft proposal with new proposed text added and deleted.
The annex to the note is submitted as, “a compromise package to serve as basis for forthcoming negotiations with the European Parliament aiming at exploring the possibilities for a first-reading agreement.”
This gives an idea of where the proposal is heading towards and what may be expected to come out of this week’s meetings to achieve a final package agreement for first reading in the European Parliament.
The main outstanding issues as included in the briefing note are below and can downloaded at Right To Ride EU – EU Proposal – Are We There Yet – pdf 376kb these include Advanced Brake Systems (ABS) and the exclusion of the lighter (L1 and L2 categories), the exclusion of L3eA2 (medium motorcycles) along with L3e-A3 (Large Motorcycles) from the anti-tampering measures, the deletion of Chapter XI of the proposed regulation as regards Individual vehicles approvals.
Conclusion
Our conclusion is that once an agreement has been reached (aka the final package) this will be contained in the draft regulation which needs to be set into a full document.
With the caveat that we await the full publication of the draft regulation to be voted on in the European Parliament, in order to have a good detailed read through, all is as well as can be expected regarding the freedom of motorcycling, for motorcyclists to modify and continue riding.
With perhaps one exclusion.
Mandatory ABS, we will continue to hold the view that there is no way it will bring about a 20% reduction in fatalities over the next ten years in Europe and we have made that point very clear, basing it on legitimate research.
We do however accept the Commission’s view that the industry is creaming motorcyclists on the extra cost of ABS, so with mandatory fitting, they will have to reduce the cost considerably to compete with bikes from India and China.
Overall, the spirit of the proposal was to ensure that motorcycling could be brought in line with car regulations and offer consumers cleaner, safer and more technically advanced motorcycles.
This seems to have been achieved without losing the spirit of motorcycling.
Right To Ride EU – EU Proposal – Are We There Yet – pdf 376kb – Click Here
Read the Full Article On Right To Ride EU – Click Here
.
