MEPs of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) vote on two reports from the Road Safety package: the Cross-Border Exchange of information Directive, and the one on Union-wide effect of driving disqualifications. This news item shows footage with extracts from the votes and the statements by Petar VITANOV (S&D, BG) and Kosma ZŁOTOWSKI (ECR, PL), Rapporteurs.

Brussels

statement

vote

Committee on Transport and Tourism

ZŁOTOWSKI, Kosma (ECR, PL)

VITANOV, Petar (S&D, BG)

road safety (T)

road transport (T)

Delivery EE2024 (T)

Cross-border exchange of information on road-safety and driving disqualifications: extracts from the votes statements by Petar VITANOV (S&D, BG) and Kosma ZŁOTOWSKI (ECR, PL), Rapporteurs

Exterior shot of the EP (Brussels) (1 shot)

Arrival of Kosma ZŁOTOWSKI (ECR, PL) and Petar VITANOV (S&amp;D, BG),  Rapporteurs (2 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Petar VITANOV (S&D, BG), The general idea of this legislation is to decrease the number of road accidents, and I think that the initial proposal was good on one hand, but we tried to make it even better. So synchronizing all the legislation, whatever it's possible, is one opportunity. Generally, almost 20% of the offenses are made by people who do not live in the country where they make the offences. Now, with this new rules, all those drivers who break the law and who are part of serious, serious offenses will be punished, which is a good thing. Which is good generally, because if you are present next time, you will be way more careful. Hopefully this whole legislation will bring to a serious decrease of the road accidents.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petar VITANOV (S&D, BG), Generally, they should expect several things. The first thing is that they don't go unpunished anymore. If they break the rules somewhere else, apart from the country of issuance of driving license. So they have to be way more careful on the road. On the other hand, whenever we are in such hypothesis or with the serious offense, they should know that they will be informed on time, that they break the rules. They will have all the necessary chances to defend themselves. And of course we will have easy distribution of information, which is good for the drivers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Petar VITANOV (S&D, BG), So basically, they should expect that they should be punished if they break the rules. That's the whole idea of this legislation in general. And of course, when it comes to serious offense, we try to improve something concerning the substance, the overspeeding, which we try in our proposal to distinguish between the urban and rural areas. So in the urban areas, drivers should be even more careful because over speeding there will mean 30km instead of 50. So hopefully they we need to make all those drivers more careful and more caring.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kosma ZŁOTOWSKI (ECR, PL), 'Road safety is the priority of the European Union. However, the ambitious goals of Vision Zero cannot be achieved without taking actions at many levels. Member States must have the tools to exchange information and effectively identify offenders who pose a serious risk to other road users. This is the aim of the revision of the Directive on the special relation of cross-border exchange of information on road safety offenses.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kosma ZŁOTOWSKI (ECR, PL), We supplement the European Commission's proposal with the additional offense of hit and run, which should also be included in the scope of this legislation. We also draw attention to the need for close cooperation with third countries neighboring the European Union. I hope that the effective implementation of these provisions will increase the level of safety on Europeans roads.