Representatives of the European Parliament and the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union succeeded in defining an interim political inter-institutional agreement on the revision of the Directive (2008/96/EC) on road infrastructure safety management on Thursday 21 February, following a third meeting of inter-institutional negotiations ('trilogues').
"Together with the Romanian Presidency of the Council and the European Parliament, we have succeeded in offering European citizens a proactive and modern safety approach to EU infrastructure", said Violeta Bulc, Commissioner for Transport, after the agreement was concluded.
This echoes the European Commission's proposal presented last May as part of the third ‘mobility’ package (see EUROPE 12022). The Council and the European Parliament had defined their negotiating positions on the matter in December and January respectively (see EUROPE 12151, 12169).
While the first meeting between the institutions had made it possible to define the work programme for the negotiations (see EUROPE 12179), the second had not resulted in much significant progress, leaving several points unresolved (see EUROPE 12188).
Thus, the parties agreed on the scope of the future revised directive, covering in particular main roads, the definition of which has been agreed. Nevertheless, Member States will, according to our information, be able to exclude certain main roads from the scope of the text, if they present in particular low accident risks or are subject to little traffic, thus leaving them a certain margin.
Bridges and tunnels will also not be included in the body of the text, but will be referred to in a recital in principle.
The institutions also agreed on road signage and marking. States should pay particular attention to the detectability and legibility of signage and marking, both for drivers and for technological driver assistance systems.
Experts will also have to study, by June 2021, the possibilities of establishing common standards for signalling and marking, taking into account in particular interactions with technologies equipped in vehicles. The Commission may subsequently establish common standards by means of implementing acts.
Finally, one of the last major points of divergence related to the mandatory or non-binding nature of the annexes of the future revised directive. In the end, these will be mainly indicative.
This provisional Interinstitutional Agreement must now be endorsed by the EU Council and the European Parliament. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)