Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-07-05-Speech-2-758-000"
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"en.20110705.41.2-758-000"2
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"Mr President, during the first reading, I thought that Parliament’s proposals could lead to the potentially futile persecution of motorists at European level, with greater emphasis on the financial returns from speed cameras rather than on saving lives.
I am afraid that, at heart, nothing has really changed. Of course, in a country like mine, where persecuting motorists has become a presidential pastime, finally calling drivers of foreign vehicles to account might appear to bring greater justice and fairness. It is true that the penalty for torching someone else’s car is less than the potential fines when driving one’s own car.
It is also significant that the information will be exchanged using EUCARIS, a system designed for combating organised crime and terrorism under the Prüm Convention, which is itself symbolic.
In my country, 25% of offences registered by static speed cameras are committed by foreign vehicles. That figure rises to 50% in the summer. The number of offences has rocketed since 2003, although no one has allowed for the direct correlation between this explosion and the increase in the number of fixed speed cameras. Are foreign drivers less aware of the warning signs and of capricious changes to the speed limit, often for no real reason? They probably get flashed more often. Does that make them more dangerous? Are they more prone to accidents? That is a different question.
This directive is being presented as a way of providing equal treatment for European motorists, but the United Kingdom, for example, which accounted for 90 000 motoring offences recorded last year in France, will be opting out. As will two other Member States. French motorists are required to deposit the total fine in order to appeal. This illegal measure is quite rightly being contested in the European Court of Human Rights. Will it be applied to foreign drivers? What is fair about that?
Finally, I am sorry to see that the compromise negotiated with the Council no longer contains many of the guarantees suggested by Mrs Ayala Sender to protect privacy."@en1
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