Cleaner and Safer Road Transport: Response to the European Commission Consultation

The EU Road Safety Action Programme will play a vital role in contributing to the reduction of traffic accidents across Europe, but can also contribute to environmental and climate goals. The EU bears a responsibility for traffic safety as well as environmental quality as the initiator of product type-approval standards for all vehicles, as a financial supporter of transport infrastructure and as the guardian of environmental legislation. The central tenet of the action programme must be to identify how European Union policy measures and instruments can complement national efforts in both areas.

This paper highlights measures where EU action can complement, and even reduce the burden on Member States, by making the vehicles, infrastructure and traffic mix safer and cleaner. A balance must be struck between respecting subsidiarity and passing the buck between levels of governance.