Provisional agreement on better cross-border enforcement of road safety traffic rules

The Commission welcomes the political agreement reached last night between the European Parliament and the Council on facilitating the enforcement of road traffic rules across borders.

Current EU rules on cross-border enforcement have helped increase compliance with road safety traffic rules by non-resident drivers. Nonetheless, in 2019 still some 40% of cross-border offences were committed with impunity, either because the offender was not identified or because payment of the fine was not enforced. Today's agreement addresses these issues with new provisions improving cooperation between Member States. Besides the automated exchange of information between national authorities, mutual assistance procedures to identify the offender and to enforce fines are introduced.

In addition to the most frequent and egregious offences, such as speeding, drink- and drug- driving, cooperation between national authorities will also cover:

• hit-and-runs;
• not keeping sufficient distance from the vehicle in front;
• dangerous overtaking;
• dangerous parking;
• crossing one or more solid white lines;
• driving in the wrong direction;
• not respecting rules on the use of emergency corridors;
• not respecting road safety-related vehicle access restrictions applied to areas such as school zones, pedestrian zones and cycling lanes,
• the use of an overloaded vehicle.

Member States will report on issues concerning offences committed by third country drivers.

An IT portal will give citizens easy access to information on the road safety rules in place in each Member State, but also appeal procedures as well as fines applied, enforcement schemes and available means for payment of the fines.

Safeguards for the protection of personal data are reinforced through clear roles and tasks for national administrations in cross-border enforcement procedures, provisions on data security, clear deadlines and guidance on the language to be used when communicating with citizens.

Next steps

The political agreement reached last night must now be adopted formally. Once this process is completed by the European Parliament and the Council, the new rules will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will need to be transposed into national laws within two and a half years.

Quote(s)

Enforcement of road safety rules is key in discouraging dangerous driving, whether it is drink and drug driving or hit-and-runs. Today's agreement delivers the first directive of the Road Safety Package and provides clear tools to help increase road safety across Europe. 

Adina Vălean, Commissioner for Transport