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Road Safety: a Shared Responsibility

A Speech (04/246) by Loyola de Palacio

Vice-President of the European Commission, Commissioner for Transport and Energy

Press conference on the Presentation of Master-Test International

Brussels, 12th May 2004

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank you for having given me the opportunity to address you today, at the presentation of Master-Test International.

May I also congratulate Motorpress International for the magnificent organisation of this event and for their excellent initiative. Personally, I find this project very interesting, since it is a perfect complement to the Commission's policy in the field of road safety. It tackles a delicate issue, which unfortunately has become part of our everyday life.

Let's say things plainly: each year, in Europe, we suffer 40.000 road deaths and 1.7 million casualties in the [15 European member-countries that comprise] EU-15. When talking about an EU of 25 Member States, these figures increase to an average of 52.000 deaths per year. In economic terms, these accidents represent approximately a cost of 2% of our GDP. These figures are terrifying and constitute an unacceptable cost for increased mobility.

In this sense, when I took up my duties as Commissioner with responsibility for Energy and Transport, I decided to make clear that one of my main objectives was to increase road safety.

This is why we decided to set up, in our White Paper on transport policy edited in 2001, the target of saving 20.000 lives on our roads each year by 2010.

To make this ambitious target realistic, we proposed very concrete measures. First of all, the Commission edited a European Road Safety Action Programme in June 2003, which contains 60 measures to be taken in order to stimulate road users towards a more responsible behaviour, make vehicles safer and improve the road infrastructure. It also contains the European Road Safety Charter, which I will speak about in more detail later on.

Experience has shown us that it is necessary to enforce rules and to make sure that governments apply them. Indeed, countries with a high level of controls and checks have the lowest levels of road fatalities.

Countries such as the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Netherlands lead the list of countries where there is high level of controls and recently, countries such as France, thanks to the plan carried out by the French authorities, have succeeded in reducing by 20% the number of road accidents in a very short period of time.

With these statistics in mind, we adopted an enforcement package in October 2003, which consisted of three proposals aiming at improving road safety through better enforcement of road safety rules. It includes:

In the first place, a recommendation which deals with the three main causes of road accidents, namely over-speeding, drunk-driving and the negligence of fastening the seat belt;

In the second place, a directive aiming at raising the quantity and improving the quality of checks carried out at the roadside and on the premises of road transport operators;

In the third place, a directive on driving licences aiming at reducing possibilities of fraud, ensuring a true freedom of movement to EU drivers and reinforcing road safety.

We hope these proposals will soon be adopted and become part of EU legislation, since they are needed in order to reduce road fatalities.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the European Commission is aware that reducing the number of road victims is a shared responsibility. It is necessary that all interested parties, that is to say local, regional and central authorities, car constructors, insurance companies and road users undertake a commitment to road safety. The latter should be both ambitious and achievable, and above all: concrete and measurable. This is the only way we can save lives.

In this sense, the Commission has translated this objective into a campaign: the European Road Safety Charter. Announced in the Road Safety Action Programme in 2003, as I told you earlier, the Charter is the forum for civil society to take up its share of responsibility towards safer roads in Europe and commit itself to enhancing road safety.

On the 6^th April, took place in Dublin the official signing ceremony of the European Road Safety Charter. It was signed by 39 public personalities. The next day, in London, 31 people decided to follow their example and so far we have received more than 40 applications which are still in the pipeline. This proves it to be appealing to a large audience.

To end up, I would like to underline once again what a brilliant publishing initiative this Master-Test International is, since it concentrates on preventive safety in vehicles by assessing comparatively the most common cars in areas which affect directly to security. The idea is to find the best equipped car and this will surely help us to reduce the number of accidents.

Indeed, we need to work all together if we want to reach our target of saving 20.000 lives a year and I am glad to see how many people are here today to prove that they are ready to join us in our battle. This is the beginning of a long race, but I am sure that we will win it all together!

Source: Europa EU Press Releases (Energy and Transport Digest, No 94, 14 May 2004)

Note:  Text in bold is as highlighted by the EU.