Brussels, 17/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's transport committee adopted a draft recommendation by Konstantinos Hatzidakis (Greek, EPP-ED) on the Council's common position relating to the installation and use of speed restrainers on certain motor vehicles within the EU, and recommends that the European Parliament adopt this common position without amendments (the Council having adopted the more significant amendments made by Parliament on first reading) at next week's plenary session.
The draft directive aims to broaden the field of application of the 1992 directive which imposes a speed limit of 100 km/h on vehicles carrying passengers equipped with more than eight seats (in addition to the driver's) and weighing over five tonnes. The new proposal imposes this limit to the same types of vehicles whose weight does not exceed five tonnes. For vehicles carrying goods whose weight is situated between 3.5 tonnes and 12 tonnes, the speed limit is 90 km/h. The installation of these speed restrainers on vehicles varies: on 1 January 2004 for new vehicles, 1 January 2005 for vehicles registered between 2001 and 2004, 1 January 2006 for vehicles used purely for national transport. Parliament's amendments, approved by the Council, related to: (1) the possibility for Member states to limit the speed of vehicles carrying hazardous goods to 90 km/h; (2) the directive's entry into force on 1 January 2004; (3) the publication of a study on the possibility of introducing an intelligent speed adaptation device (ISA) 18 months after the directive takes effect. Such a system provides recommendations on the optimal speed in relation to information on the road, speed limits, characteristics of the car and allows for a more flexible approach to speed limits.