EU officials welcome Eurosparks findings during Brussels seminar Item Added 24 January 2008Foreign vehicle owners could soon be traced and forece to pay what they owe. Eurosparks research project provides solutions for EU-wide traffic enforcement.
In a seminar today in Brussels, facilitated by Belgian MEP Dirck Sterckx (ALDE), the Eurosparks project team presented their solutions to the traffic enforcement problems caused by drivers of foreign registered vehicles.
An audience from across the European Union of more than 100 delegates heard legal experts outline why the problems arise and what steps should be taken to resolve them.
Speakers and delegates included representatives from the European Commission and the European Parliament as well as officials from Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Malta, Austria, Sweden and Romania.
Over the last twelve months, the Eurosparks research project has been analysing possible solutions for judicial cooperation across national borders to support the enforcement of minor traffic offences committed by foreign vehicle owners.
Nick Lester, Director of Transport, Environment & Planning at London Councils, and chair of the SPARKS steering group which initiated the project, said: “There is confusion among member states as to whether existing EU legislation can be used to enforce payment of decriminalised traffic penalties. No legal remedies are available to local authorities seeking to recover administrative penalties across national borders against citizens of other EU member states. Today’s seminar highlights this growing problem and the search for a solution has now moved up the EU agenda.”
The coordinator of the Eurosparks legal research team, Professor Patrick Birkinshaw, commented: “This is a serious problem that has to be addressed and resolved. Different legal systems conceptualise enforcement in different ways. We hope that our work will produce a clear understanding of how legal systems can co-operate and that EU level action will now be taken to fill the remaining legal gaps that we have identified.”
During a lively panel discussion facilitated by SPARKS Programme manager Bill Blakemore, project partners from several EU member states including Italy, The Netherlands and France, made it clear that the sharing of vehicle data for enforcement purposes between traffic management authorities and vehicle licensing agencies needs to be accelerated.
Mr Blakemore commented that “the sharing of the results of Eurosparks will provide a much better understanding about the shortcomings of the Framework Decision on mutual recognition of financial penalties and we hope that new wider ranging legislation can be considered.
T"he upcoming commission proposal on road safety, which is expected to address cross-border enforcement issues, provides a rare opportunity to adopt new thinking to solve some of these problems."
The Eurosparks legal research team will publish its final report to European decision makers, including the full results of their research, in the next few weeks and plans to develop further legal perspectives in the year ahead.
VVSG, Vereniging van Vlaamse Steden en Gemeenten, Eurosparks Belgian partner, organised the Brussels seminar.
Professor Patrick Birkinshaw, who leads the Eurosparks research team, gave an interview at the end of the seminar in Brussels.
What happens next?
We have included the roadmap for implementing our recommendations in the report. We’re aiming for the directive by 2012, which means lobbying in Europe and with Her Majesty’s Government especially. The changes resulting from the Lisbon Treaty mqy have a positive impact on these timescales in that criminal and non criminal matters will no longer be split up.
Who in the European Commission will you present your recommendations to and when?
DG Transport and DG Justice. We will be supplying abstracts next week and the full report in the next couple of months once we have taken account of discussions and outputs from each of the Eurosparks seminars that were held in Rome, The Hague, Berlin, London, Paris, Malta and Brussels over the last few months.
What are the chances of the recommendations being implemented?
That we don’t know with any certainty. It is not crystal clear how long it will be before they are accepted, but we can say there is strong interest from the Commission and the Parliament. We are clear though that a directive under Article 71 of the European Treaty is a much better option than falling back on multilateral and bilateral treaties and this has been the view of delegates at all our seminars.
How long will it take for the recommendations to be implemented?
That timetable is in the hands of the European Commission, not Eurosparks and the SPARKS Programme. Our target is 2012 for implementation into UK law so that we can support the London Olympic Games.
Once implemented how will they be enforced?
What will happen, using London as an example, is that when a penalty notice is issued to a foreign registered vehicle a notice will be served after data exchange of the known addresses of the vehicle owner. This is likely to be in a foreign country. After a period for the owner to respond the penalty will be enforced in the local jurisdiction of that owner’s country without questions being asked about whether it is criminal or civil or administrative.
How effective will enforcement be at reducing offending by FRVs?
If a person knows they are going to have to pay and there is quite a sting in it, then the law is effective against all but the most incorrigible.
What has the highlight of the research project been for you?
Confronting for the first time problems at ground level that are usually ignored by lawyers and politicians, but which go to the basic legal fundamentals and which create problems for European integration. Also developing solutions for this problem has been a great challenge and interesting, all the legal commentators at our seminars have said the same thing. |
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Facts & Figures- The South East (excluding London) accounts for 29% of FRV activity
- Channel Tunnel & channel ports carry most of the FRV traffic entering and leaving the UK
- The further a region is from the South East the lower its level of FRV activity
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