Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-17-Speech-2-450"
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"en.20080617.42.2-450"2
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"−
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end point of this Regulation on the protection of pedestrians and other vulnerable road users. The aim of the Regulation is to change the safety requirements for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users in the event of injuries resulting from a collision with a motor vehicle.
The scope of the Regulation is significant because it has incorporated two previous directives, one from 2003 and the other from 2005. The first directive set out the safety requirements that cars had to have, to be implemented in two phases. The first phase was launched in 2005, while it turned out that the requirements of phase two were not fully feasible from the technical viewpoint for all vehicles. The second directive relates to the use of frontal protection systems on vehicles and indicates various levels of protection for vulnerable road users in the event of a collision with vehicles equipped with such systems. Among the most sensitive points, I would like to mention ABS, the brake assist system: this is a system that will make it possible to reduce deaths on the roads by 35%.
The greatest victory, though, has probably been succeeding in making the instrument applicable within 24 months of the Regulation’s entry into force to all categories of car, from small cars to SUVs and to vehicles of a larger size which often, because of their large weights, are the ones that cause the most physical damage to citizens. It was not easy at first, partly because the car industry needs time, in industrial and physiological terms, to apply certain measures. I am, however, happy that all the parties understood the issue and its delicacy and I appreciate the efforts made to put this system into practice.
A second aspect of the Regulation was frontal protection systems. The 2005 Directive, in fact, will be incorporated through this regulation, and thus cars that decide to install ‘bull bars’ will not obtain approval if the safety requirements for frontal protection systems do not provide the same level of safety as that laid down for vehicles without frontal protection systems.
I realise, in any event, that while we have certainly accomplished a significant amount, there is still much more that could be done, and in particular research will always go further in the direction of increasing safety for pedestrians and vulnerable road users. I have also felt the need to leave a door open for improvements to this text. I am referring particularly to collision avoidance systems. Currently there are no effective structural systems for pedestrian safety on the market, but some years hence they may be developed. This is why the text stipulates that if, five years following entry into force of this Regulation – as the Commissioner said – the industry were able to present passive safety systems of a type that could guarantee pedestrian safety, the Commission would have to put forward a new text to Parliament and the Council, taking technical developments into account.
The issue of safety is a very important one to the people of Europe and I have personally undertaken to send a strong message to all the citizens of the European Union. It is the delicacy of the issue that has led me to ensure that the Regulation will be adopted at first reading, to avoid a second reading with the Council, the only effect of which would have been an excessive delay in the date of entry into force of the regulation. This position was shared by my colleagues on the Committee on Transport and Tourism. All the amendments tabled were designed, first and foremost, to protect pedestrians and vulnerable road users. I therefore hope that this Regulation will be the first strong signal from the European Parliament of an increasingly rigorous approach to safety regulation on Europe’s roads, demonstrating that Europe is united, alive to the issues and in tune with the concerns of its citizens."@en1
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