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EU Member States cut back on vital vehicle checks and open door to “monster trucks” in double blow to EU road safety

  • December 4, 2025

The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has today condemned the outcome of the EU Transport Council, describing the Member States’ position on two key road safety files as a dangerous rollback of safety standards that will endanger lives on European roads.

EU Transport Ministers have stripped back the European Commission’s proposals to modernise periodic technical inspections (PTI) for vehicles and, at the same time, paved the way for the unchecked proliferation of longer and heavier vehicles (LHVs) across the continent.

However the final shape of the proposals is subject to negotiations with the European Parliament and Commission.  

Vehicle checks

The Council’s position on the revision of the Roadworthiness Package represents a systematic dismantling of proposed safety improvements:

  • Motorcycles left unchecked: Despite small motorcycles and scooters representing 72% of the motorcycle fleet in the EU, the Council has refused to mandate EU-wide inspections for vehicles under 125cc. Furthermore, they have rejected the Commission’s attempt to close the loophole that allows Member States to opt out of checking larger motorcycles in favour of vaguely defined “alternative measures.”
  • Recall chaos: The Council has rejected a mandatory link between roadworthiness tests and outstanding vehicle recalls. With recall completion rates for issues such as exploding airbag components varying wildly across the Union, this decision ensures that dangerous defects will continue to slip through the net, leaving unsafe vehicles on the road.
  • Blind eye to checks on core safety features: Modern vehicles are equipped with advanced safety systems designed to save lives, such as lane departure warning and seatbelt reminder systems, as well as features that can pose risks if not functioning properly, such as “DCAS” – the latest generation of assisted driving systems. Checks on these features were missing from the Commission’s proposal, and the Council failed to correct this, meaning faults could go undetected.
  • Old vehicles ignored: Ministers also cancelled the proposal to require annual checks for cars and vans older than ten years, maintaining the current biennial schedule despite the proven higher risk of mechanical failure in ageing vehicles.

Van roadside checks effectively cancelled

While the Commission proposed carrying out roadside checks on 2% of the registered van fleet of a country annually, a modest and necessary target given the explosion in delivery traffic, the Council has replaced this with a target based on 10% of the number of Heavy Duty Vehicle (HDV) inspections.

The reality of this change is stark. Taking Belgium as an example (1):

  • Van fleet: 897,000 vehicles.
  • Commission proposal: Would require 17,900 roadside checks (2% of fleet).
  • Council proposal: Would require just 730 roadside checks (calculated as 10% of the 5% target for the 147,000 strong HGV fleet).

This represents a 96% reduction in enforcement ambition, effectively giving a free pass to unsafe vans on the road.

Moreover, Member States that require annual technical inspections of vans do not need to carry out roadside checks at all. Random roadside checks are essential to ensuring that vans, which are subject to heavy use, are properly maintained.

Megatrucks with no safeguards

On the revision of the Weights and Dimensions Directive, the Council has given the green light to the cross-border travel of Longer and Heavier Vehicles (LHVs) between consenting countries. This decision signals a gradual creep of megatrucks across the EU without adequate safeguards.

There is little to no mitigation of the severe risks these vehicles pose:

  • No route analysis: Member States will not be required to rigorously analyse which routes are safe for these massive vehicles in advance of their rollout.
  • Impact monitoring gutted: The Council has deleted requirements for Member States to monitor the impact of these vehicles on road safety, road infrastructure and on modal shift (the loss of rail freight traffic to road).
  • Inexperienced drivers: Thanks to the recent revision of the Driving Licence Directive, 18-year-olds could soon be driving these vehicles, with no requirement for the specific, additional training obviously necessary to handle such massive machinery safely.

Ellen Townsend, Policy Director at ETSC, commented:

“This is a terrible result for road safety. Transport ministers have today decided to turn a blind eye to dangerous vehicles and inexperienced drivers operating monster trucks. By watering down the proposals on vehicle checks, they risk allowing safety systems to fail and recalls to be ignored. By opening the borders to megatrucks without proper safeguards, they are prioritising freight profits over human lives.

“It is now up to the European Parliament to ensure these proposals actually improve road safety, and do not create new risks.”

Notes to editors:

  1. Vehicle fleet figures for Belgium in 2024:  https://www.febiac.be/sites/default/files/media/file/2025-09/III.A.1.%20Parc%20v%C3%A9hicules%20par%20type%20de%20v%C3%A9hicule%201990-2024.xlsx