Brussels, 23/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - By amending the own initiative report of Swedish Socialist Ewa Hedkvist Petersen on the mid-term review of the European road safety action plan on 22 November, the European Parliament transport committee calls on EU Member States to propose a Europe-wide zero alcohol level for young drivers and professional drivers carrying passengers or dangerous products. Among the other suggestions aimed at enhancing road safety, the parliamentary committee is highlighting the need to approximate legislation and road signs, as different regulation in this area can cause accidents. In this regard it calls on the Commission to present a study on the harmonisation of road signs in Europe. It also invites Member States to impose the use of free-hands mobile phone kits for private vehicles and professional road users. It also suggests that the Commission ban heavy-duty vehicles weighing more than 12 tonnes from overtaking on one or two lane roads and to present guidelines for making road work areas safer, areas where many deaths and accidents on the roads occur. The parliamentary committee, however, rejected the idea of setting up a European Agency for Road Safety (there is no money available for it: EUROPE 9161), as well as a series of amendments to introduce speed limits on Community territory. In a press release, German Green MEP, Michael Cramer and Eva Lichtenberger from Austria, who voted against this report, said that it is “nothing short of a disgrace that a majority of MEPs opposed setting an EU-wide limit for blood alcohol levels for drivers of 0.5/ml”. Danish Green Maragete Auken, the shadow reporter on the dossier also voted against the report, describing it as “shameful” that the parliamentary committee had rejected amendments to impose an EU maximum speed limit. (dt)