Brussels, 11/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption, on Tuesday, of the recommendation by Belgian national Mathieu Grosch (EPP/ED), the EP slightly amended the Council's common position on continuous training of long-distance lorry and coach drivers (codecision, second reading). The amendments adopted by the Parliament mainly call for the "level of qualification targeted" to be included as an additional requirement for assessing the different systems of qualification set in place in the Member States. The Parliament considers that crime prevention must be one of the aims of driving instructors. Finally, some courses of continuous learning may be partially given by advanced simulation. The Parliament agrees with the Council on the timetable for application of the directive: the Member States are expected to transpose it three years after it takes effect whereas the measures for the new lorry drivers will apply five years after and, for coach drivers, six years after. The European Parliament's Committee on Transport had called for shorter times - two, four and five years - but the plenary did not follow this up.
The proposal of directive establishes an obligation of initial and continuous learning for all professional lorry and coach drivers wishing to carry out the profession of driver on EU territory, in order to strengthen road safety.