Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-01-17-Speech-3-209"
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"en.20070117.12.3-209"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like firstly to address Mrs Hedkvist Petersen and to thank her warmly for this fight – and that is the right word – that she has led in favour of road safety. You have not just produced an excellent report, but you have also demonstrated the importance of road safety on many occasions in this Parliament. The motion for a resolution also shows that there is broad consensus amongst Parliament, the Council and the Commission on this priority and on the need for action at European level.
I would like to make a brief assessment of our fight for road safety. In terms of global results, we suffered 50 000 deaths on the roads in 2001 and our objective is not to exceed 25 000 by 2010. In 2005, in the Europe of twenty-five, a further 41 600 deaths were recorded. It is essential that we update our mid-term assessment with the first results for 2006. This year has been rather better than previous years. We have improved by 9% and certain countries that had remained stagnant have made significant progress. Overall, the States that joined in 2004 have made more progress than the Fifteen. The success has been fragile, but it deserves to be welcomed. There are disparities, however, between the best and the worst performing countries. There is a range of 1 to 3 deaths per million inhabitants, or 1 to 5 deaths per million private vehicles.
The Community’s initiatives since 2001 have been effective. Road safety has become a major political priority in most of the Member States. The majority have therefore drawn up national road safety plans. We have adopted legislation on driving times and rest times for professional drivers, adopted measures on vehicle safety and launched education and awareness campaigns. We have also adopted a third directive on driving licences, which will provide better protection, for motorcyclists in particular.
The assessment presented by the Commission in February 2006 was simply factual and we are preparing new initiatives. We must fill the gap in the current legislation relating to mirrors that eliminate the blind spot for existing heavy goods vehicles. We must speed up the installation of that mirror. We cannot wait for the complete renewal of the European lorry fleet, that is to say more than fifteen years, for this practical and inexpensive measure to become fully effective. I am very much counting on the European Parliament to support this speeding up of the implementation of the mirror eliminating the blind spot for existing heavy goods vehicles.
We have presented a proposal to the co-legislators on the management of the safety of Trans-European Network infrastructures. It consists of a range of tools to allow the Member States to better manage the safety of their network. Furthermore, we must ensure that nobody has impunity from traffic offences because they have been committed abroad. I will make a formal proposal this summer on the cross-border enforcement of the more significant traffic offences. We have also launched a consultation on the obligation for daytime running lights. No decision has yet been taken. We need to hear the opinion of the Member States and of users.
Having said that, what matters if we are to win the safety battle is that we stay in direct contact with the citizens. That is why we launched the European Road Safety Charter in April 2004. 650 road safety actors are signatories to that Charter: companies, automobile clubs, associations, schools, media organisations, local authorities, to name but a few. By signing the Charter, actors commit themselves to taking responsibility and taking concrete and measurable action within their area of competence.
Finally, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, a first European Road Safety Day will be held on 27 April 2007. This Day falls at the same time as the United Nations Global Road Safety Week, and I would urge Parliament and every Member of Parliament to take part in this event, which is very dear to us.
I shall end, Mr President, by once again highlighting the quality of the document prepared by Mrs Hedkvist Petersen. It offers a well-argued vision of the future. Not only does it emphasise the short-term priorities, but it also proposes promising medium-term solutions, on which the Commission’s services are also working. Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted that our views coincide, but I would like to say that this record of more than 40 000 deaths on the roads means that we have a very great responsibility in the field of road safety. I am therefore grateful to Parliament, Mr President, for being involved in and totally committed to improving it."@en1
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