Germans interested in safe and non-polluting traffic controlItem Added 02 January 2008German municipalities and federal states are just as interested in safe and non-polluting traffic control as local authorities in other EU member states, according to delegates at Berlin’s Eurosparks seminar.
They are also looking to implement traffic laws that can be applied to all drivers regardless of nationality and that are obeyed by all drivers. According to Eva Huesselman of conference organiser Eitco, this is a significant change of attitude compared to nine months ago.
“In the spring public interest was low, the administration was working on implementation of the EU framework decision [COPEN 24] and nobody was willing to talk about the issue of enforcement against foreign registered vehicles,” she said.
“Now they are willing to comment on the need for laws that are applicable to everyone and for equal treatment. The conference in Berlin is helping to arouse public interest for this issue.”
Delegates came from the Ministry of Justice, Office of State Justice, Ministry of Transport, the states of Brandenburg, Thuringen and North Westfalia, the cities of Leipzig and Nurnberg, as well as RDW the vehicle licensing agency.
“Representatives of the federal states and the cities were very interested in Eurosparks progress to get an EU directive for cross-border enforcement,” said Eva. “They were also interested in how other states have developed interim solutions.
“For instance in Germany there is no legal basis to employ private companies to collect civil traffic penalties, such as EPC in the UK and Cannock Chase in The Netherlands. And we have no lobbying on the issue and no network like SPARKS.”
The Berlin Eurosparks seminar was held in the International Club of the Foreign Ministry on 15 November 2007. Speakers included Dr Wilfried Bernhardt of the Ministry for Justice, Dr Detlef Marek of the Ministry of Transport, Michael Nissen of the Office of State Justice, Dr Martina Kunnecke of Hull University, Professor Jens-Peter Schneider of Osnabruck University, Dr Ortwin Wohrab of Eitco and SPARKS programme manager Bill Blakemore. |
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Facts & Figures- The number of foreign heavy goods vehicles entering the UK has trebled in the last ten years
- 1.7m foreign HGVs pass through UK ports each year for mainland Europe
- 8% of HGVs on UK roads at any one time are foreign registered
- Foreign HGVs use roads three times more than UK registered HGVs
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