Six years late: Commission still won’t legislate ABS for small motorcycles

Anti-lock braking systems on motorcycles cut crashes by around 30%. The European Commission has known this for years. It commissioned a study in 2020 that found a benefit-to-cost ratio of nearly 23 to 1 for extending the existing EU mandate to small motorcycles. The case it laid out was overwhelming. The Commission has not acted on it. 

At the most recent meeting of the Commission’s Motorcycle Working Group on 22 April, the only meeting in 18 months, officials told stakeholders that a targeted proposal was unlikely because of “limited resources”. Meanwhile, India and Singapore are getting on with it.

ABS is mandatory in the EU for medium and high-performance motorcycles under Regulation (EU) 168/2013. It is not mandatory for the smallest category, L3e-A1: bikes up to 125cc and 11kW, the entry-level machines that new and younger riders are most likely to be on. Manufacturers can fit either ABS or a less effective combined braking system.

The legislator anticipated this gap. Article 79 of 168/2013 required the Commission to submit a report by 31 December 2019 examining whether ABS should be mandatory on small motorcycles, and to consider a proposal. The TRL study commissioned to support that report was duly delivered in 2020. It estimated a cost of €60.7 million to fit ABS to all new small motorcycles in the EU, and benefits of €1.4 billion. The Commission’s own report, which the law required by the end of 2019, has yet to materialise. No legislative proposal has followed either. We are now in mid-2026.

ETSC wrote to the Commission in September 2025 asking for ABS to be added to the agenda of the next MCWG meeting. When the working group eventually convened on 22 April 2026, officials from DG GROW indicated no appetite for the targeted proposal that ETSC had called for. The reason given: a co-decision proposal requires an impact assessment, and resources are limited. Yet a Commission-funded support study setting out the case in detail – including costs and benefits – has been on the shelf since 2020.

A pattern, of lower priority for motorcycle safety

The ABS story is not the only place small motorcycles are being left behind. When the Commission proposed its revised Roadworthiness Package in April 2025, ETSC welcomed the closure of an existing loophole on regular technical tests for heavier motorcycles, but flagged that mopeds and motorcycles up to 125cc were still excluded from mandatory technical inspections, despite well-documented levels of tampering, brake failures and tyre defects. ETSC has pointed out that the exclusion covers around 70% of Europe’s powered two-wheeler fleet. ETSC is now urging MEPs to bring all powered two-wheelers into scope ahead of imminent Parliament votes.

So on two basic, proven, cost-effective safety measures for the smallest motorcycles – fitting them with much more effective braking systems, and checking that the brakes still work years later – the Commission’s position is the same: not now, not a priority. Powered two-wheeler users account for more than one in five road deaths in the EU, a share that has risen even as overall deaths decline.

Europe falling behind

While the EU stalls, others are acting. India has announced the intention to mandate ABS on all powered two-wheelers above 50cc from 2026. Singapore is planning the same on all new motorcycles. ABS-equipped motorcycles are also marketed in countries with lower purchasing power than Europe at prices equal to or below those of small motorcycles without ABS in the EU, which puts paid to any remaining argument about affordability.

EU leadership on motorcycle safety is stalled. ETSC has been calling for ABS to be made mandatory on small motorcycles for years, most recently in writing to the Commission in September 2025. The Commission’s answer, six years past its own legal deadline, is that it does not have the resources.

That answer is no longer credible. The proposal is short. The evidence is in. The cost-benefit case is overwhelming. Riders of small motorcycles are paying the price for an inaction the Commission cannot any longer reasonably defend.