MEPs urged to support transport legislation

Supporters of the European Union’s attempts to make lorries safer say the opportunity should not be missed

Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London, has criticised his party leader David Cameron, the British prime minister, for his opposition to a European Union proposal that would require new lorries to have safer and more aerodynamic designs. The European Parliament’s transport committee is to vote on the proposal on Tuesday (11 February).

The British government has told MEPs that it will oppose any mandatory requirement for a design change, a stance confirmed by the UK’s permanent representative to the EU. The UK government says the safer designs should be voluntary.

But the London mayor is supporting the change and sent one of his aides, Andrew Gilligan, to Brussels last week to call on MEPs and member states to support the proposal. Johnson’s demand is based on the safety risks presented to cyclists by current lorry designs. Johnson said in a statement that he is “deeply concerned” about the British government’s opposition to the law.

He supported amendments by MEPs that would require new lorries to have safer cabs, improve drivers’ sightlines and reduce blindspots. “This is a once-in-a-decade opportunity for the EU to remove some of the blockages which prevent us from making lorries safer in our cities,” he said last week. “If these amendments, supported by dozens of cities across Europe, succeed, we can save literally hundreds of lives across the EU in years to come. I am deeply concerned at the position of the British government and urge them to embrace this vital issue.”

Last week 130 mayors from cities across Europe, including London, Amsterdam, Madrid and Copenhagen, signed a declaration asking for MEPs and governments to support making the safer designs mandatory.

But European automotive industry association ACEA does not support having a fixed cab design. The industry is opposed to a mandatory approach and prefers being given flexibility to instead design cabs in a way that would give the most extra space for technological innovations.

“You do not need to re-design the cab to have the best safety outcome,” said Cara McLaughlan, a spokesperson for ACEA. “Active safety technologies really are the way forward, as these prevent accidents happening in the first place.”

Mega-lorries

The European Commission’s proposal on lorry weights and measures has also been bogged down by the separate issue of mega-lorries. MEPs and environmentalists cried foul when Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for transport, announced last year that the Commission would change its legal interpretation of existing laws to allow mega-lorries – those larger than the EU limit of 18.75 metres long and 40 tonnes in weight – to cross borders. Individual member states are allowed to conduct ‘trials’, but until last year lorries involved in these trials could not cross into a neighbouring member state, even if it too was conducting a trial.

At the request of MEPs, the Commission inserted the change into legislation, as part of the weights-and-measures proposal. But the argument now risks derailing a proposal which environmentalists otherwise strongly favour.

“The MEPs asked us to propose this as a legislative proposal, so we included it, as I promised, in the directive on weights and dimensions – which was proposed by Greens,” Kallas told European Voice last week. “Now the whole thing is blocked. But it’s not my question now…the Parliament wanted this.”

Jörg Leichtfried, the centre-left Austrian MEP who is guiding the legislation through the Parliament, wants to see the mega-lorries provision scrapped. The vote on this particular provision is expected to be close, and it is possible that disagreement over this issue could result in the entire weights-and-measures proposal being frozen for the rest of this parliamentary term.

Click Here: kanken kids cheap