06/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - According to statistics published by the European Commission on 3 November, the number of road accidents in which people were killed fell by 25.2% in the EU between 2001 and 2006. Twelve EU Member States are above the EU average in terms of improvements in road accident fatalities: France (- 41.8%), Portugal (-41.5%), Luxembourg (-38.3%), Denmark (-35.3%), Finland (-33.3%), Belgium (-33.1%), Austria (-31.7%), the Netherlands (-29.9%), Germany (-28.3%), Italy (-27.6%), Latvia (-27.3%) and Spain (-25.4%). Other Member States at or below the EU average are the Czech Republic (-22.7%), Sweden (-21.7%), Estonia (-19.1%), Slovakia (-15.5%), Poland (-12.8%), Greece (-11.6%), Cyprus (-10%), the UK (-9.6%), Hungary (-4.1%), Slovenia (-2.4%) and Ireland (-0.8%). The number of accidents actually increased between 2001 and 2006 in Malta (by 8.3%) and in Lithuania (by 10.6%). (dt)