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What ever happened to Sleeping Beauty - the cross-border enforcement directive?by Bill Blakemore - 18:04 on 18 June 2009  Tuesday was a long day trip out to the transport working group of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions but I've no complaints. The meeting was in Paris, which meant a return trip on Eurostar and gave me a chance to see how things have changed in the City of Light since my last visit 18 months ago.
I don't remember Paris being so bicycle friendly, with cycle paths alongside the main boulevards and everyone (even the police) pedaling furiously in the right direction along them. 'Velib' bikes offering 'cycling freedom' were available for rental on many street corners. The sun was shining, the pavement cafes overflowing with diners and this amazing city looked its very best.
 The CEMR had invited me to speak about progress on the proposed cross-border enforcement directive, which as regular readers of this website will be aware, was published in March 2008. Up until December it seemed to offer a good prospect of at least some European legislation facilitating the exchange of vehicle data for traffic enforcement purposes.
The European Parliament had done good work in improving the draft directive and adopted the proposal in a plenary vote on 17 December. But despite the best efforts of the French Presidency the directive was blocked by an alliance of the UK and German governments who took issue with the proposal - claiming that although it had merit it had no legal basis in the Treaty.  In their view a directive was not appropriate, and cross-border enforcement should not form part of normal EU matters: this was essentially a justice and home affairs topic in which governments have exclusivity. Like Sleeping Beauty, the directive went to sleep and has remained dormant, untroubled by the credit crunch, the US elections, the UK political turmoil, or any of the major event of the last six months.
I needed to check out for CEMR delegates what the latest position was and looked to see if some questions posed recently by an outgoing French MEP, Mrs Brigitte Fouré, had been answered. In April she asked what solutions the Commission and the Council were considering on how to enforce the law in the field of road safety, following last December’s European Parliament vote on the directive. Mrs Fouré did not return as an elected member after June’s parliamentary elections, but her questions have lived on and the answers reveal some interesting news. The Council’s reply was unimpressive: it “has not decided on possible solutions to deal with the legal difficulties”. However Antonio Tajani, the Transport Commissioner, revealed in his written reply of 26 May that “the Commission is looking at the possibility of preparing a modified proposal for a directive taking into account the Parliament's amendments, and certain questions raised in discussion in the Council. Furthermore, the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty may allow a new legal framework to be taken into account”. It is good to see that the Commission is not letting the directive stay dormant for ever. Perhaps Sleeping Beauty’s slumbers are soon to be disturbed, with the Irish referendum vote on Lisbon in the role of the Handsome Prince. We’ll find out after the summer how the Irish will vote: if they vote ‘yes’ to Lisbon, Sleeping Beauty may by Christmas be wide awake. But if they vote ‘no’ she may simply turn over and carry on snoozing.
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