Skip to main content

EU policymakers must facilitate automated motoring, say European Motoring Clubs

The Eurocouncil of the Federation Nationale de l’Automobile (FIA) claims that EU policymakers must take responsibility for facilitating the deployment of automated motoring. Made up of 73 FIA Automobile Clubs in Europe and with 37 million members, the Eurocouncil believes in the potential for automation to improve road safety, and urges EU institutions to streamline the deployment of this technology. The declaration was adopted at the annual FIA Region I Spring Meeting, taking place in Gammarth, Tunisia fro
May 7, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
The Eurocouncil of the Federation Nationale de l’Automobile (FIA) claims that EU policymakers must take responsibility for facilitating the deployment of automated motoring. Made up of 73 FIA Automobile Clubs in Europe and with 37 million members, the Eurocouncil believes in the potential for automation to improve road safety, and urges EU institutions to streamline the deployment of this technology. The declaration was adopted at the annual FIA Region I Spring Meeting, taking place in Gammarth, Tunisia from 5-8 May 2015.

FIA Region 1 president, Thierry Willemarck, said: “This is the moment when automation is poised to dramatically improve road safety. Policymakers need to create the best legislative environment as this technology becomes a reality. Users must be at the heart of this deployment as well. They need to be informed and ready to adopt this next evolution in mobility.”

The Eurocouncil declaration demands that a concerted effort is made by EU policymakers to create a path to automated motoring, especially by considering the specific driver education and training needs in the revision of the European Driving Licence Directive, seeking international harmonisation of road signs and markings necessary for automated road traffic and enabling wide accessibility to road infrastructure and traffic data needed for automated operation within the provisions of the European ITS Directive and implementation.

They must also direct infrastructure-related investment of the TEN-T programme and Connecting Europe Facility to prepare road and roadside infrastructure for automation, support the development of vehicle design standards that promote driver supervised automation, in particular to safeguard driver vigilance and supp[ort an adapted legal framework, taking into account changing liability rules.

Related Content

  • July 21, 2014
    EU urged to fast-track revised cross-border enforcement law
    TISPOL and its road safety partners across Europe are urging the EU to fast-track the adoption of a modified law on cross-border enforcement of traffic offences such as speeding. The modified rules, published by the European Commission, come in response to a European Court of Justice ruling in May that said the existing law, which came into force in November last year, had been adopted on an incorrect legal basis. The ECJ has said the current rules could remain in effect until May 2015 while new legisla
  • September 28, 2017
    FIA launches road safety initiative: #ParkYourPhone when on the road
    European MEP Dieter Liebrech Koch, FIA Region I and its member Clubs are launching #ParkYourPhone, a campaign to encourage responsible smartphone use in traffic. The campaign will be rolled out across Europe the Middle East and Africa by FIA Clubs in autumn 2017. MEP Koch said that while Europe has done much to improve safety, be it on technical improvements of the vehicles, better training for road users or infrastructure, new technologies, such as smart phones and tablets, bring about new challenges.
  • July 17, 2012
    Progress towards a pan-European cooperative infrastructure
    Kallistratos Dionelis, General Secretary of ASECAP, makes the case for a lightly regulated, staged progression towards a pan-European cooperative infrastructure environment, the achievement of which should look to engender cooperation between the public and private sectors. Such an approach, he says, is the only real path to success.
  • August 18, 2021
    C-ITS in Europe: jazz or symphony?
    Communication between vehicles on the road is going to be increasingly important. Richard Lax of Kapsch TrafficCom explains why music is a good guide to the way that this could work safely