The European Commission welcomes the Parliament and Council’s final adoption of the Directive to strengthen cross-border enforcement of road traffic rules.
While previous EU rules improved compliance with road safety regulations by non-resident drivers, a significant gap remains, with approximately 40% of cross-border offences going unpunished due to challenges in identifying offenders or enforcing fines. The newly adopted rules tackle these shortcomings by enhancing cooperation among Member States, streamlining offender identification, and facilitating fine enforcement.
Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, Apostolos Tzitzikostas said: “Every year, more than 20,000 people die on Europe’s roads. To bring these unacceptable figures down, it is crucial to ensure a real deterrent effect through the enforcement of road traffic rules. Drivers must know that if they break the rules and endanger others, they will face the consequences of their actions, whether driving in their home country or abroad.”
Cooperation between national authorities will not only focus on the most common and serious offenses like speeding, drunk and drugged driving, but also on other hazardous behaviours:
- not keeping a safe distance from the vehicle in front;
- dangerous overtaking;
- dangerous parking or stopping;
- crossing one or more solid white lines;
- driving in the wrong direction;
- failing to respect the rules on the creation and use of emergency corridors or on giving way to emergency service vehicles;
- using an overloaded vehicle;
- not respecting the rules on road safety-related vehicle-access restrictions;
- hit-and-runs;
- not respecting the rules at railway level-crossings.
Member States will report on issues concerning offences committed by third country drivers. An IT portal will give citizens easy access to information on the road safety rules in place in each Member State, but also appeal procedures as well as fines applied, enforcement schemes and available means for payment of the fines.
Safeguards for the protection of personal data are reinforced through clear roles and tasks for national administrations in cross-border enforcement procedures, provisions on data security, clear deadlines and guidance on the language to be used when communicating with citizens.
Next steps
The new rules will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ) in the coming days. Member States will need to transpose them into national laws within two and a half years, following publication in the OJ.
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