In mid-June 2013, Siim Kallas the Vice-President of the European Commission, attended a road safety conference in Brussels organised by ETSC (European Transport Safety Council).
ETSC is a Brussels-based independent non-profit making organisation which is dedicated to reducing the number of deaths and injuries in transport in Europe.
At the conference Mr Kallas gave a speech on making Europe’s roads safer and the way ahead.
In the speech he highlighted his opinion that, “The main problem is that there are simply too many vehicles with technical defects on the road.” and that, “we (European Commission) have tried to do something.
This was in reference to the European Commission’s proposal for the introduction of a regulation on Road Worthiness Testing across EU.
With regards to motorcycling Mr Kallas did not seem to be happy about the position adopted by the European Council (representatives of democratically elected governments) the TRAN (Transport and Tourism) committee in charge of the Road Worthiness Proposal, IMCO (Internal Market and Consumer Protection) committee, both committees of MEPs, democratically elected by European Citizens, that is, you and me!
The position adopted by both council and the parliamentary committees, is the deletion of the requirements to introduce mandatory road worthiness testing for motorcycles, which would thus leave this decision up to member states to either introduce or keep their testing procedures for motorcycles.
Mr Kallas stated, “So the Commission proposed toughening vehicle testing regimes and widening their scope to include motorbikes and scooters. Today’s rules date from 1977 and do not cover two- and three-wheeled vehicles.
What happened? This proposal has now been rejected twice, by EU ministers and the European Parliament’s transport committee. This is more than unfortunate – and it is yet another unnecessary political compromise.
Of course, technical failure is not the only cause of accidents. It could be a moment’s distraction of a driver or a pedestrian, a damaged section of road. Or simply because one road user chooses to ignore a traffic rule.”
Whilst the European Commission keeps quoting figures for motorcyclists collisions and injuries caused by mechanical defects, on the other hand an initial appraisal prepared by the Impact Assessment Unit for the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) says, “Whereas the larger part of the data used by the Commission seem to be sufficiently robust, the basic assumption that better and more frequent technical inspections would lead to fewer defects in vehicles seems not to be supported by evidence at all.
Moreover, the further link between fewer defects in vehicles and the avoidance of accidents also seems less firmly established.
With regard to motorcycles, the Commission’s assumption that 8% of accidents involving motorcycles are caused by technical defects is based on a single DEKRA Motorcycle Road Safety Report (2010).
This seems to be contradicted by other OECD and European Commission statistics, indicating that such a clear relationship between motorcycle fatalities and technical testing of motorcycles might not exist.”
Adopted Position
The adopted position by the TRAN committee for the European parliament which is made up of MEPs from all parties and political groupings in the European parliament was amended, debated and democratically voted on by this committee on 30th May 2013.
Included in the parliamentary position adopted by TRAN and IMCO included the following:
“No later than [three years from the date of publication of this Regulation], the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the inclusion of two- or three-wheel vehicles into the scope of this Regulation. The report shall assess the road safety situation for that category of vehicles in the European Union. In particular, the Commission shall compare road safety results for that category of vehicles in Member States carrying out roadworthiness testing of that category of vehicles with those in Member States which do not test that category of vehicles in order to assess whether roadworthiness testing of the two- or three-wheel vehicles is proportionate to the set road safety objectives. The report shall be accompanied, if appropriate, by legislative proposals”.
So this takes into the contradiction of the Commissions reliance on the DEKRA report and to look at the evidence before introducing any legislative proposals.
The vote on the three legislative reports that were adopted in TRAN Committee on 30 May, is due to take place on Tuesday of next week (2nd July) with a debate on the proposals scheduled for the previous day Monday 1st July).
Eleventh Hour
In the meantime at the eleventh hour ALDE rapporteur and Lib Dem MEP Phil Bennion broke ranks and added amendments to re-introduce the inclusion of 2 and 3 three wheeled vehicles. The Green party representatives have included further amendments of a similar nature.
We can only speculate why at this point in time these MEPs have evidently thrown a spanner in the works and whilst using the procedures that are allowed in the European Parliament because they did not get their way in the democratic procedure, debate and voting, have now made all the efforts of the TRAN and IMCO Committee and the European Council appear to be futile.
This is effectively sticking two fingers up at the democratic process, to fellow MEPs to governments and to the citizen and riders organisations who have lobbied fair and square, a process in which Mr Bennion took an active part.
As the latest European Parliament Newsletter regarding the plenary session in Strasbourg says, “It might approve mandatory inspections of motorbikes across the EU, after this was narrowly rejected by the transport committee in May.”
We would ask our UK MEPs not to support any amendments which would reintroduce mandatory road worthiness for motorcycles across Europe and to support the previous position of the Council – TRAN and IMCO Committees in this matter and to encourage their colleagues to do likewise.
Our Letter to Phil Bennion
Dear Mr Bennion
Reference your pervious communication with my colleague at Right To Ride regarding the Road Worthiness Testing proposal, I have just become aware that you have submitted amendments on behalf of the ALDE group.
These amendments, I have been informed, would reintroduce the requirements for motorcycles to be included in mandatory road worthiness testing.
As this, is importantly against the whole position of the motorcycling community across Europe and against the deletion recommended in the positions of the Council and Tran and IMCO committees, I fail to see your/ALDIs reasons and for example the S&D Group for these and similar amendments.
I am preparing an article for our website to be published prior to the debate and vote in the Plenary session of the parliament on Monday and Tuesday and would appreciate any comments you would have concerning this matter.
An example of the text I am preparing includes:
“In the meantime at the eleventh hour ALDE rapporteur and Lib Dem MEP Phil Bennion broke ranks and added amendments to re-introduce the inclusion of 2 and 3 three wheeled vehicles. The Green party representatives have included further amendments of a similar.
We can only speculate why at this point in time these MEPs have evidently thrown a spanner in the works and whilst using the procedures that are allowed in the European Parliament because they did not get their way in the democratic procedure, debate and voting, have now made all the efforts of the TRAN and IMCO Committee and the European Council appear to be futile.
This is effectively sticking two fingers up at the democratic process, to fellow MEPs to governments and to the citizen and riders organisations who have lobbied fair and square, a process in which Mr Bennion took an active part.
We would ask our UK MEPs not to support any amendments which would reintroduce mandatory road worthiness for motorcycles across Europe and to support the position of the Council – TRAN and IMCO Committees.”
Whilst the European Commission keeps quoting figures for motorcyclists collisions and injuries caused by mechanical defects, on the other hand an initial appraisal prepared by the Impact Assessment Unit for the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) says, “Whereas the larger part of the data used by the Commission seem to be sufficiently robust, the basic assumption that better and more frequent technical inspections would lead to fewer defects in vehicles seems not to be supported by evidence at all.
Moreover, the further link between fewer defects in vehicles and the avoidance of accidents also seems less firmly established.
With regard to motorcycles, the Commission’s assumption that 8% of accidents involving motorcycles are caused by technical defects is based on a single DEKRA Motorcycle Road Safety Report (2010).
This seems to be contradicted by other OECD and European Commission statistics, indicating that such a clear relationship between motorcycle fatalities and technical testing of motorcycles might not exist.”
The adopted position by the TRAN committee for the European parliament which is made up of MEPs from all parties and political groupings in the European parliament was amended, debated and democratically voted on by this committee on 30th May 2013.
Included in the parliamentary position adopted by TRAN and IMCO included the following:
“No later than [three years from the date of publication of this Regulation], the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the inclusion of two- or three-wheel vehicles into the scope of this Regulation. The report shall assess the road safety situation for that category of vehicles in the European Union. In particular, the Commission shall compare road safety results for that category of vehicles in Member States carrying out roadworthiness testing of that category of vehicles with those in Member States which do not test that category of vehicles in order to assess whether roadworthiness testing of the two- or three-wheel vehicles is proportionate to the set road safety objectives. The report shall be accompanied, if appropriate, by legislative proposals”.
So this takes into the contradiction of the Commissions reliance on the DEKRA report and to look at the evidence before introducing any legislative proposals.
Regards
Trevor Baird
www.righttoride.co.uk
www.righttoride.eu
trevor.baird@righttoride.co.uk
You can find Phil Bennion at www.philbennion.org and on Facebook
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