French concerned about enforcement against foreign vehiclesItem Added 14 January 2008Eurosparks Paris seminar highlights issue of enforcement against foreign drivers among French politicians and senior civil servants.
Lively debate among delegates from five different French ministries and numerous local authorities and traffic industry organisations at Eurosparks’ Paris seminar confirmed foreign drivers committing traffic offences are also an issue in France, even though traffic and parking laws have not yet been decriminalised.
“The seminar was very well attended by a number of senior and influential people from the French government,” said SPARKS programme manager Bill Blakemore. “The debate was lively and there was a buzz to the proceedings, with the European Commission representative Annie Canel describing them as “hyper-interessant” [extremely interesting].”
Debate centred around the suitability of COPEN 24 as an enforcement mechanism for public authorities. Some speakers and delegates, taking a criminal, French-only perspective, felt COPEN 24 was a suitable mechanism for penalty enforcement. Others looked at the wider EU context.
“The representative from the ministry responsible for submitting a response to the Commission consultation ‘Respecting the Rules’, was one of those who recognised that COPEN 24 has weaknesses,” said Bill Blakemore.
“There was general agreement that traffic rules need to be enforced in order to be credible, and that it is a bad thing for foreign drivers to believe they can ignore the rules with impunity.”
Lieutenant-colonel Yann Trehin, of La Gendarmerie Nationale, gave an example of a British visitor stopped by French police for driving his Lamborghini at speeds over 200k/h, which he would have been unlikely to do on a UK motorway.
Christian Philip, a former member of the French National Assembly and now vice president of GART (Groupement des Autorités Responsables de Transports Publics), who spoke about the potential for decriminalisation in France, made a plea for local authority control of parking enforcement, with penalties retained by local authorities.
“He wants to remove central government political influence so that local authorities can control their local parking environment and described the situation as ripe for change with the new French president in place,” said Bill Blakemore.
Almost 50 delegates attended the Eurosparks seminar in Paris on 18 December at Sciences Po University in the central government quarter of the city. Delegates came from Ministère de L’Interieur, Ministère de L’Ecologie, Ministère de L’Économie, Ministère de la Justice, Ministère du Budget, Senat – Département de L’Orne, Caisse des Dépôts, European Commission (DG Transport), Fédération Nationale des Métiers du Stationnement, Fédération Française des Sociétés d’Assurance, Institut National des Hautes Études de Sécurité, Direction Régionale de L’Equipement de Lorraine, France Culture, Cour d’Appel de Versailles, Université de Bourgogne, Sciences Po, Université Paris I, Université de Caen, Amiens Metropole, Gendarmerie Nationale, Groupement des Autorités Responsables de Transports Publics, Lyon Parc Auto, RDW, Newtech Concept, Sagem Sécurité, Roche Investigations and Vinci Park. |
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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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