ETSC’s Response to the European Commission Report on the Implementation of the EU Road Safety Policy Framework at the Mid-Point

Every year, almost 20,000 people are killed on EU roads and around 100,000 more are seriously injured – losses that devastate families and communities and cost the EU economy an estimated 2% of GDP. The EU and its Member States have committed to halving road deaths and serious injuries by 2030, and to approaching zero deaths by 2050 under “Vision Zero.” We are now at the midway point of the EU Road Safety Policy Framework 2021–2030, and the European Commission’s report – the Report on the Implementation of the EU Road Safety Policy Framework at the Mid-Point – takes stock of progress and sets out the way forward.

This briefing is the European Transport Safety Council’s response to that report. ETSC welcomes the Commission’s honest assessment that progress is too slow and that the road safety “toolbox” may not be fit for the challenges ahead. But the report also reveals a worrying gap between the scale of the problem and the ambition of the proposed response, and overlooks a deregulatory trend that risks undermining the 2030 targets completely.

The sections that follow set out where ETSC agrees with the Commission, where the report falls short, and what legislative action, investment and oversight are now needed to get back on track.