To improve road safety and support the digital transition, MEPs debate and vote on updating driving licence rules, introducing mobile licences and mandatory health checks. Opening statements by Karima DELLI, Rapporteur, and Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

ŠUICA, Dubravka (EPP, HR, EC)

DELLI, Karima (Greens/EFA, FR)

car safety (T)

road safety (T)

Debate: Driving licences: Opening statements by Karima DELLI, Rapporteur, and Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography

SOUNDBITE (French), Karima DELLI, (Greens/EFA, FR), Rapporteur,  Dear colleagues. One person dead on the roads is always one person, too many dead. It's always a drama that could have been avoided. You will have understood that. I do not think that we can accept any deaths on the road. These things, are not predestined. Europe can't accept them. In the European Parliament, we have agreed a roadmap. Which is binding and is clear. Zero deaths and zero seriously injured on our roads by 2050. Currently, we have 20,000 people dying each year on the roads of the European Union and more than 170,000 people injured every year. But then do the math. How many lives are destroyed? How many families are broken apart? We need to have a driving license which is at the service of road safety.

SOUNDBITE (French), Karima DELLI, (Greens/EFA, FR), Rapporteur,  This is what motivates us. We can strengthen security on our roads through common sense measures. The idea of this directive, the goal of it, is to save lives. That's the only thing that inspires us. We need to make progress down this road with the driving license arrangements. But we know about this. But many of us have been done this way before because there are 14 member states, a majority that have already adopted: Portugal, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Greece, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Hungary, Lithuania have all adopted the obligatory medical examination already. I should say this loud and clear here. A majority of member states already have obligatory medical tests. You can look elsewhere, but even elsewhere they do the same. Argentina, Switzerland, many other countries in the world require these medical tests, and we are putting forward the idea of these tests that will take place throughout people's lifetimes.

SOUNDBITE (French), Karima DELLI, (Greens/EFA, FR), Rapporteur,  Health problems can occur at any stage. It's not just old people that may have problems. It's a very simple thing. It's like having a second safety belt. Our parliament has sent a historic message in the face of these unacceptable dramas on the roads. And I can tell you that in my experience as a member of European Parliament, I've never received so much support, so many messages, so many moving messages of people who've had awful experiences. Any one of us tomorrow, in a split second, could have a serious accident and join the list of victims. I've received a number of messages. Here are some. Pauline is with us here today. Became paraplegic after being hit by a 90 year old driver. Pauline has converted her a misfortune into a struggle to make legislation successful in this area. Florin, 27 years old. Also here in hemicycle today. Thank you. Florin lost her mother Jacqueline, three months ago who was knocked ove...

SOUNDBITE (French), Karima DELLI, (Greens/EFA, FR),  Rapporteur,  And there are doctors who see people, who there are drivers who see the effects and who shouldn't be driving and still do. Yannick is an HGV driver in France just checked on every five years. Doesn't see why that should not be applicable across the EU. Yanni, who has to take the car keys from her grandmother ten years ago because she was scared. I stopped the list. There they are. Colleagues. I have received many such, such, testimonies. But these are people who are willing to tackle the taboo, to raise their voices because they know what's at stake. So I say to you. We must legislate, because if we do not, you can be condemned tomorrow for failure to assist people who are potentially in danger. Failure to provide assistance. We can do it. We can say loud and strong. You know, colleagues, the European Parliament can legislate on this.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography Chair, honourable members, on behalf of my colleague Commissioner Adina Vălean, who cannot participate in this debate due to other institutional commitments, I would like to thank Chair Karima Delli, the shadow rapporteurs and the rest of the committee for their quick and constructive work on our proposal to update the driving licence directive. This is a historic piece of legislation. If adopted, this will be the fourth such directive since the original was adopted in 1980. Today, we are so used to the fact that we can drive across the European Union with one driving licence that it seems difficult to imagine when driving licences were not automatically recognised between member states.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography Since 1980, we have gathered countless best practices, closed loopholes, implemented important reforms and adapted to a changing world. The revision again improves what we already have. It does not seek to reinvent the wheel, and I would ask you not to support amendments that could hamper the elements which  are very crucial and are the basis of the well established system. Amendments to definitions and minimum age requirements currently in force fall into this category. These are especially important for categories B and B1. I would also like to remind you that introducing the concept of demerit points to the directive is problematic, as this would likely prove to be technically challenging to implement considering there is no harmonisation to road traffic offences and penalties at the European level.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography Moreover, the merit points schemes where these are used vary significantly from one member state to another. I would ask you to instead focus on issues on which we put attention when drafting the proposal. One concerns the accompanying driver scheme in the European Union. We are proposing that it should be open to 17 years old for licence categories B and C, as we wish to build on the positive results seen in the member States that already have such a system. We now want to make the scheme mandatory. Anything less will cancel out the positive impact on road safety, and it will also diminish its contribution to tackling the current shortage of professional drivers. I want to remind you once again that the road freight sector has around 400,000 unfilled positions at the last count.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography 'I would also ask for your support for our proposal to raise the minimum standards used to ensure fitness to drive. This applies to all drivers, regardless of age. Today, member States have no mechanism in place to ensure the category A and B licence holders are medically fit when they renew their licence, 15, 30, 45 years or even longer after it was issued. We want to make clear that all drivers who are fit to drive should be allowed to do so. However, holding a  driving licence is not only about entitlements, it is also about responsibilities. Between 5% and 15% of all traffic accidents can be attributed to the drivers medical fitness. I want to remind that the commission chose to include in its proposal the possibility to do a self-assessment, which we still believe to be viable and proportionate, in on our way forward.

'SOUNDBITE (English), Dubravka ŠUICA, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Democracy and Demography I would urge you to support amendments that uphold our level of ambition, so that we can help citizens understand when it is safe to drive. And finally, I would like to thank you for your support on the probationary period for novice drivers. The European Union digital driving licence, the new system for the exchange of third country driving licences and the easing of language requirements for driving licence applicants living in member states other than their own. Each of these measures is key to ensuring that the fourth Driving Licence Directive achieves its goal. Greater road safety and facilitation of the free movement within European Union. I look forward to this interesting debate and to the adoption of your report, which I am certain it will help improve the safety on our roads and will offer more opportunities for our citizens wanting to exercise the right to free movement. Thank you.