European Union: Policy and Regulation
European Union: Policy and Regulation
During the last year, the European Commission's Roadworthiness Package has continued to progress through the EU legislative process and is now approaching formal agreement between Member States and the European Parliament. The Package originally consisted of two Regulations, dealing with Periodic Roadworthiness Testing and Technical Roadside Inspection of commercial vehicles, respectively, and a Directive on vehicle registration documents. While the Scottish Government supports the key aims of the Package, we have fed into the UK negotiating position to favour measures which establish improved road safety outcomes in a way which is proportionate and cost effective for road users and industry. This has helped lead to a position where all three elements of the Package take the form of Directives rather than Regulations.
In many areas, Scotland already exceeds the EU standards and frequency for roadworthiness testing. It is therefore likely that the new measures will have a limited direct impact on Scottish road users but will help to increased standards and harmonisation across the EU.
The European Commission was expected to publish legislative proposals aiming to harmonise enforcement practices where road transport operators have infringed safety, social or technical EU rules. This should help ensure that operators within the Single Transport Area are treated on an equal footing when facing checks or the penalty of losing good repute. These proposals feature on the Commission Work Programme and have now been adopted in 2014.
Since taking over in January 2014, the EU Greek Presidency intends to reach agreement with Member States on the deployment of the interoperable EU wide eCall service. This is an invehicle call system designed to contact emergency services in the event of an accident, subsequently reducing response times. The Commission's draft legislation, published in 2013, proposed that from October 2015 all new models of passenger cars and light duty vehicles would be fitted with eCall, and that mobile network operators and Member States upgrade the necessary infrastructure. The Report on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning type-approval requirements for the deployment of the eCall in-vehicle system, and amending Directive 2007/46/EC, was approved by the European Parliament in February 2014.
The UK Government commissioned an impact assessment which identified an annual cost of around €300 million to the UK, which would ultimately be passed on to consumers. Scottish Ministers remain supportive of the principles of eCall, as part of our overall commitment to improve road safety in Scotland, but believe that any mandatory deployment would need to be accompanied by a more positive economic case. We therefore support a voluntary approach to deploying eCall at this time.
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