Compromise reached on EU technical inspection schemes
The EU Commission has announced agreement with the European Parliament on the controversial road- worthiness testing package, by which powered two-wheeler (PTW) users in Europe were facing the prospect of a 'context-lite' system for harmonised periodical inspections.
However, that prospect is now fading because agreement has now been reached on a road-worthiness testing package in which heavy motorcycles will be subject to periodic roadworthiness tests from 2022, but Member States may exclude these vehicles from testing if they have put in place alternative effective road safety measures in their own country.
If heavy motorcycles are included in the scope of periodic roadworthiness testing, specific testing methods, inspection areas and frequency are now to be decided at Member State level rather than by the EU Commission.
FEMA (Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations) has welcomed the compromise reached, and noted that "common sense has prevailed in the end. FEMA has consistently criticised the Commission's proposal to harmonise periodical technical inspections for L-category as useless and expensive, and being based on a testing-industry biased impact assessment".
A transport spokesperson for the EU Presidency said that "the agreement establishes and upgrades minimum common standards for technical inspections of vehicles and roadside inspections of commercial vehicles, as well as facilitating mutual recognition of roadworthiness certificates across the EU.
"Therefore the Roadworthiness package is an important step towards increasing the safety of the European road transport system".
Member States will have to recognise a valid roadworthiness certificate in the case of a re-registration of a vehicle from other Member States, which is said to be "an important step towards creating common harmonised rules facilitating movement of EU citizens".
