From Europe

The FEMA and its national member organisations have realised that Transport issues discussed by governments at the International level will greatly affect motorcyclists.

For some years now, FEMA has been taking part in the different Working Parties dealing with Transport within the United Nations (UN). One of them has been given the responsibility to set up the construction standards for the "World Bike", the other one is establishing a worldwide Road Safety strategy.

With the Multi-Directive, the "Euro Bike" standards had been established. FEMA was in the front line to make sure that that bike was one that motorcyclists would enjoy riding. And with success! Now, we have to make sure that the "World Bike" will be free from unnecessary restrictions.

The difficulty here is that the procedure is significantly different to the European democratic process, where Parliament and Member States have to reach an agreement for a proposal to be finally adopted. Within the UN, Member States are operating independently. In practical terms, this means that the results achieved by motorcyclists in Europe will not necessarily be taken into consideration worldwide. Added to the fact that the United States, Australasia and Asia will also be part of the game.

On the Road Safety side, the UN strategy for motorcycles includes the promotion of leg protectors in the design of bikes and fluorescent and reflective clothing... This sounds like 'deja`-vu'! FEMA managed to avoid making them compulsory in Europe and now they come back and try to impose themselves Internationally!

There is still a lot of work to be done in order to preserve the future of motorcycling. From the beginning, FEMA has been looking closely at these developments and will work hard to make the motorcyclists' voice heard, together with FIM (Federation Internationale de Motocycliste) and its sister organisations from the other continents.

However, plans are well advanced for motorcyclists to meet worldwide...

Columbus, Ohio. Earlier this month, a meeting took place of the working group developing arrangements for the 3rd International Public Policy Conference. This conference is organised every two years by the Commission for Mobility and Transport (CMT) of the FIM (Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme). The next one will take place in Columbus, USA on 27-29th April 2001.

The objective of the conference will be to gather members of the International motorcycle community in order to discuss subjects that are of concern for motorcyclists.

The items on the agenda this year will be the global harmonisation of motorcycle standards, ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) and how riders will be affected, and road safety.

FEMA will be present to make contributions on the increasingly important subject of global harmonisation and the Swedish threat of "Zero Vision" aiming to zero death on the roads. FEMA member organisations, including MAG UK will also be present as representatives of European motorcyclists.

Legislation goes global.... So do motorcyclists!

LANGE REPORT ADOPTED BY THE ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE

Yesterday, Tuesday 23/01, the Lange report amending a Commission proposal on the reduction of emissions from two/three wheeled directive was voted upon by the Environment Committee.

Bernd Lange's proposals on Durability, In Use Compliance, On Board Diagnostics, etc have all been accepted by the Committee.

Yes, worst-case scenario becomes true.

Even worse a further amendment by Alexander de Roo (Nl, Green) , demanding that "the Commission submit a Proposal complementing this Directive to the European Parliament and the Council containing provisions to introduce inspection and maintenance requirements for motorcycles and two and three-wheel motor vehicles" was also adopted.

On the roadworthiness question it must be pointed out, that following earlier discussions with Bernd Lange, he had withdrawn his amendment calling upon the Commission to submit bikes to emission checking within the Roadworthiness directive (96/96). He nonetheless voted in favour of the de Roo amendment on RWT.

When Bob and I met in the morning with Bernd Lange, he clearly indicated that, having gone through a similar process on cars and heavy goods vehicles as a rapporteur, his strategy was to "ask for 100 to get 50"

In a letter circulated to the members of the Environment committee before the vote he indicated that "we are only in the first reading now. During the legislation process for the directives for passenger cars and heavy duty vehicles we had more far-reaching demands in the first reading - conscious that the result in the end would become a compromise between Commission, Council and Parliament."

Bernd Lange also withdrew some of his amendments namely to ensure that in use compliance was to be conducted at no cost for the users, and that manufacturers would have to ensure serviceability of OBD systems by the users.

We clearly told him our strong dissatisfaction about him opening Pandora's box to concepts to be implemented on bikes which were either inappropriate or hadn't been researched. Another bad news, is that within the Environment Committee, most of the PPE group, led by shadow rapporteur Karl Heinz Florenz also supported many aspects of the Lange report, although being from a different political group. Only the UK conservative MEPs took an opposing view to the rapporteur.

One positive amendment to motorcycling, as we see it, was one, tabled by David Bowe indicating that further tightening of motorcycle emissions limits should be decided upon taking into consideration the effect on those small manufacturers having an annual production volume of less than 5 000 units per approved type. This is likely to give back a bit of breathing space to European manufacturers that the Lange proposal removed.

Industry says that hopefully the Council can never accept provisions on roadworthiness testing to be implemented as a regulation within this directive, because this directive is about homologation and not about "in use" provisions.

Industry further explained that the Lange position had to be understood in the context of the whole legislative process. Indeed, if the Parliament does not amend a Commission proposal, it looses all possibility to do so in further stages, (2nd reading, conciliation). Only the issues that have been touched upon in the first reading can be further amended at later stages, after the Council has taken its "Common Position".

Bernd Lange explained that he does not expect half of his proposals to survive to the end of the legislative process, but that he wanted to set an agenda.

The Commission representative supported the report though he said the special characteristics of 2-3 wheeled vehicles, and of the motorcycle industry had to be taken into account (smaller vehicle, smaller businesses).

He supported the proposal on durability, the requirement on CO2 emissions /fuel consumption, and the banning of bypass devices, and admitted there was a urgent need for a Commission proposal on those items. However he expressed doubts on the feasibility of in use compliance and OBD in the short term, stating that they both required further research before legislating upon.

The next step is when the report is vote in the plenary session in mid-February. We are hoping to be able to overturn at least some of the provisions of the Lange report there, as the Green/socialist alliance is not in a majority position as it is in the environment Committee.

Obviously this will be one of the main points on the agenda of our next FEMA Committee meeting. Bob and I are eager to hear your comments. Where we are means that the FEMA will need to consider its policy on this subject, namely about the role of cats in emission control and in the light of that decide how we should respond to the situation

TOO MUCH DRINKING AND DRIVING IN THE EU

In order to fight better against drinking and driving, the European Commission today recommended limiting at 0.5 mg/ml the permitted blood alcohol concentration level. Although the number of casualties in drink-drive accidents has been significantly reduced in the past twenty years in the EU, drinking and driving is still a major road safety problem. About 10,000 people, a quarter of all EU road deaths, are killed every year in accidents where at least one driver had consumed too much alcohol.

Action to reduce drinking and driving can significantly reduce fatalities and casualties in road accidents. In 1988 the Commission proposed to introduce a maximum permitted blood alcohol concentration limit of 0.5 mg/ml throughout the Community. Because of subsidiarity concerns, this proposal was never adopted by the Council of Ministers. The Commission has decided that the best course of action, at the present time, is to consult European Parliament and Council on a draft Recommendation on the issue.

The main elements of this new recommendation are the following:

All Member States should adopt a general legal maximum blood alcohol concentration limit of no higher than 0.5 mg/ml. Only four Member States (United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy and Luxembourg) still retain a maximum legal blood alcohol concentration limit of 0,8 mg/ml.

A lower legal maximum limit of no higher than 0.2 mg/ml should be adopted for inexperienced drivers (those who are learning to drive or have only been in possession of a full driving licence for less than two years), drivers of large goods vehicles and buses, and riders of 2 wheel motor vehicles.

All Member States should adopt random breath testing to deter drivers from drinking. They should also seek to ensure that every driver has a good chance of being tested at least once every three years, in accordance with the current best practice standard. Lower and more harmonised blood alcohol limits will provide a clearer message to drivers on European roads, but they are unlikely to reduce accidents significantly on their own. In parallel, more effective enforcement of the limits throughout the Member States will also be required. If this happens across the majority of the EU, then thousands of lives could be saved each year.