Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-06-13-Speech-4-009"
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"en.20020613.1.4-009"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, for years, and in vain, Parliament has been calling on the Commission to produce proposals for binding legal instruments that would compel the automobile industry to reduce the risk of injury to pedestrians in the event of a crash by means of passive safety measures on the front of motor vehicles. Instead of doing so, the Commission presented a communication on an agreement negotiated with the automobile industry, which, however, incorporates not only passive safety measures, but active ones as well. As substantial parts of it can become effective at once, it is very much to be considered as a useful means of realising the policy objective of reducing by 50% the annual total of those killed or gravely injured in accidents by 2010.
However, I expect all the parties concerned to regard the agreement thus negotiated as a contract by which they must abide. No doubt the Commission is able to confirm to us that it is not the case that – as we have been informed – motor manufacturers are already questioning their obligations on one point. The motion for a resolution before us now will motivate the automobile industry to step up its research into passive and active safety for pedestrians, rather than – as individual lobbyists fear – contributing to the crippling of development. The protection of pedestrians is at last becoming a matter of public interest.
The two-phase improvement of pedestrian safety envisaged is acceptably close to the aim of the White Paper on European Transport Policy. Phase A, which commences at once and will end in 2005, will already contain essential measures, including, among others, the equipping of all new vehicles with ABS anti-skid equipment with effect from 2003, the immediate installation of daytime running lights on new vehicles, the requirement that new vehicles should cease to be supplied with bullbars, and the carrying out of modified tests by the European Enhanced Vehicle-Safety Committee (EEVC) to examine impacts on pedestrians.
Whilst reference is made to the importance of the EEVC's research and development programme, we call for the quality of the four systematic tests in phase B to be further developed. In order to truly guarantee phase B's legal certainty, we call on the Commission to draft a framework directive, primarily to stipulate a clear timeframe for further measures and details of the monitoring process. We furthermore expect such a directive to prescribe coherent and practicable test methods, dealing with more aspects than do the EEVC's testing areas and take the interplay of the tested objects into account. The result of this is a challenge across the board to the automobile industry's capacity for innovation and research.
Consumers are coming of age and will increasingly value the cars of the future in terms of their safety for their occupants and for pedestrians, and will choose which to buy on that basis. Safety is being used more and more in marketing and sales, which brings advantages for consumers and advances in road safety. I recommend the adoption of the text as voted on by the Committee."@en1
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