Key Notes

Transport safety

I. Background

European transport policy, the main aim of which is to create an environmentally sustainable transport system, plays a key role in the development of the European economy. The EU’s prosperity, is partly due to a well thought-out transport policy, which aims, by 2010, to establish a balanced relationship between all modes of transport, to remove the existing bottlenecks in the trans-European network, and to be more user-friendly.

This aim can be attained only if transport safety is given absolute priority in all areas, but in particular in road and maritime transport, in the interest of both people and the environment. The fact that the improvement of transport safety is an important concern for the EU is demonstrated very clearly by the inclusion of specific rules on competence in the title relating to transport in the EU Treaty (see Article 71(1)(c) of the EC Treaty).


II. What have the EP and EPP-ED achieved during this parliamentary term?

The fact that considerable progress on legislation to improve transport safety in all areas has been made in this parliamentary term is due in particular to the efforts made by the EPP-ED MEPs.

As regards maritime transport, the EPP-ED Group successfully sought to ensure that the EU Commission rapidly put forward new proposals for improving the safety of maritime transport following the tragic shipping disasters (Erika in 1999, Express Samina in 2000, Prestige and Tricolore in 2002). Within a relative short time by European standards two packages of measures (Erika I und II) became European laws which bear the mark of the EPP-ED Group.

They involve the tightening up of checks on ships entering Community ports or passing through European waters (port State control), the laying down of stricter common provisions and standards governing ship inspection and survey organisations (classification societies), the accelerated phasing-in of double-hull or equivalent design requirements for single-hull oil tankers, the introduction of a Community monitoring, control and information system for maritime traffic, the establishment of a European Maritime Safety Agency, the enhancement of ship and port facility security, a minimum level of training of seafarers, and the introduction of sanctions, including criminal sanctions, in cases of ship-source pollution, etc.

Furthermore, the Group was able to provide the chairman for the temporary MARE Committee. Following the Prestige accident this committee was tasked with examining whether the measures already adopted are being applied effectively or whether EU legislation should be tightened up further.

As regards the strengthening of safety measures for air transport, the EPP-ED MEPs had a decisive role in shaping European legislation. For example, the Group provided the rapporteur on the important draft law on the establishment of the EASA, the European Aviation Safety Agency. The function of the agency is to assist the Community in developing Community standards on safety and environmental protection in the field of civil aviation and their uniform application in Europe. The EPP-ED Group also provides the rapporteur on the proposal for a law establishing common rules in the field of civil aviation security, which proved to be urgently required following the tragic events in the United States on 11 September 2001. This proposal covers, in particular, access control and checks on passengers, baggage and freight at airports.

The Group’s aviation experts have also directed their attention towards the creation of a Single European Sky. Since air travel in the enlarged EU is expected to double over the next ten years, air traffic control in Europe must be subjected to fundamental reorganisation without delay. The EPP-ED considers that the extensive fragmentation of European airspace not only poses a danger to flight safety, but also results in considerable flight delays, increases the wasting of fuel, and undermines the competitiveness of European airlines.

The Group therefore supported the proposal for a regulation laying down the framework for the creation of the Single European Sky put forward by the Commission and the three technical regulations on the provision of air navigation services, the organisation and use of the airspace, and the interoperability of the European Air Traffic Management network.

In view of the alarmingly high number of deaths and injuries on the EU’s roads (each year 40 000 people are killed and 1.7 million are injured), the EPP-ED MEPs have made the promotion of safety in road transport a priority objective. They will continue to do their utmost to ensure that the EU’s ambitious target of halving traffic deaths by 2010 is in fact achieved.

In recent years the EPP-ED experts have succeeded in having included in important reports their constructive ideas on

• the fitting of tachographs and speed limitation devices to lorries and buses,
• the compulsory training and further training of professional drivers for the carriage of goods or passengers by road,
• the improved protection of pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users,
• the monitoring of driving and rest periods of HGV drivers, and
• the laying down of more stringent standards for tunnel safety, etc.

As regards safety in rail transport, the Group has been able to ensure that further measures were taken to create uniform standards throughout the EU and that the European Agency for Railway Safety and Interoperability will be able to commence its work soon.


III. Our aims for the next parliamentary term

• Strict checks on whether existing legislation is being applied and the development of harmonised sanctions in the event of infringements,



• Monitoring of the activities of the newly established agencies (for aviation safety, maritime safety and railway safety), and



• Assessing, in the field of road transport, whether to proceed in accordance with the ‘best practice method’ or whether the Community should introduce legislation.

Romain Strasser, Advisor