According to a document obtained by EUROPE, the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council has refined its proposal on the revision of the road safety directive. The new compromise was discussed on Wednesday 3 May at the meeting of the Working Party on Land Transport.
In the previous compromise, the Presidency suggested extending the scope of the directive to non-compliance with the rules on vehicle access restrictions (see EUROPE 13163/8). This proposal was accepted and worded as follows: “This Directive aims to ensure a high level of protection for all road users in the Union by facilitating the cross-border exchange of information on road-safety related traffic offences [as well as the offences related to urban vehicle access regulated zones], and thereby facilitating the enforcement of sanctions, where those offences are committed with a vehicle registered in a Member State other than the Member State in which the offence took place”.
Concerning the procedures for the exchange of information on vehicle registration between Member States, the Presidency proposed that the competent authority should intervene. “In order to establish if a vehicle is overloaded or is not respecting the rules on urban vehicle access regulated zones the competent authority shall, where appropriate, first request access to the technical vehicle data”, it says.
When the offence is established, it is suggested that the competent authority requests access to the data related to the holder and, where available, the owner and end user of the vehicle.
Furthermore, the Presidency compromise provides that Member States shall return a message that the information cannot be disclosed in the case that the requested information would reveal the identity of a person protected in accordance with the national law of the Member State of registration. The requested Member State would then not be obliged to share other data elements than those related to the committed offence.
With regard to the information letter on road traffic offences, the Presidency proposed that Member States should ensure that, in cases where the person liable is a non-resident driver who was checked on the spot in a road control and where the enforcement of the committed offence has been finalised by the competent authority with a transaction of the financial penalty paid by the liable person, this person shall receive at least the following information: - the receipt of the financial transaction; - the contact information of the competent authority; - information on the offences committed.
Finally, the Presidency wished to add to the list of data elements necessary to carry out the search in question, in particular information relating to vehicles. The proposed list includes: - date of the first registration of the vehicle; - mass of the vehicle; - number of axles; - type of fuel or power source; - the EURO type of the vehicle.
To read the compromise proposal: https://aeur.eu/f/6r4 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)