WRITTEN QUESTION No. 953/98 by Riitta MYLLER to the Commission. Slow-moving three-wheeled vehicles
Date: 1998-03-30
Institutions: European Parliament, MYLLER
Subjects: accident prevention, approval, disabled person, elderly person, motor vehicle, road traffic, speed control

18.1.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 13/13

It is worth pointing out that Member States are primarily responsible for developing and implementing the
programmes, and for project selection in particular. In the next programming period, the Member States will see
their overall responsibility for programme implementation and monitoring explicitly enhanced in the regulations
if Parliament and the Council adopt the thrust of the Commission(cid:146)s proposal for greater decentralisation and
simplification of the Funds. The proposed expanded partnership, which will include the economic and social
actors, is also likely to help improve the management of operational programmes that include measures in favour
of SMEs.

The Commission will work to provide an appropriate follow-up to the Court of Auditors(cid:146) report and to supply the
information needed to reply to the comments contained in it.

Lastly, as requested by the Council in its resolution of 9 December 1996 (2), the Commission, as coordinator of
the Community(cid:146)s SME policies, has started to prepare a recommendation on the ways SME access to Community
programmes can be improved. The recommendation will cover Community programmes with a significant
impact on the development of SMEs, examples being the Structural Funds, research and innovation.

(1) OJ C 354, 19.11.1998, p. 40.
(2) OJ C 18, 17.1.1997.

(1999/C 13/018)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0953/98

by Riitta Myller (PSE) to the Commission

(30 March 1998)

Subject: Slow-moving three-wheeled vehicles

Under EU rules, slow-moving three-wheeled vehicles whose use on the road is permitted are classified as
L2 vehicles. They are used mainly by the elderly and the disabled and have a maximum speed of 40 km/h.

From a distance, and especially in the dark, such vehicles look like ordinary cars. However, as they travel more
slowly than other traffic, it ought to be possible to warn other road-users more effectively to keep clear of them in
order to avoid accidents.

Could the appropriate member of the Commission say whether it would be possible for such three-wheelers to be
designated as slow vehicles, so that they would have to bear a warning triangle alerting other road-users to their
slowness? This would improve road safety in the interests both of drivers of the three-wheeled vehicles and of
other road-users.

Answer given by Mr Bangemann on behalf of the Commission

(29 May 1998)

Council Directive 92/61/EEC of 30 June 1992 on the type approval of two or three-wheel motor vehicles (1)
provides, in particular that light quadricycles having an unladen mass of less than 350 kg are considered to be
three-wheel mopeds (vehicles having a (design) speed not exceeding 45 km/h and a cylinder capacity not
exceeding 50 cm3).

Therefore these light quadricycles, or (cid:145)cabin scooters(cid:146) are covered by the approval procedure for two or three-
wheel motor vehicles and must therefore meet not only the requirements of the framework Directive referred to
above, but also those of the various separate Directives deriving from the same framework Directive.

However, the Community provisions in this area do not require (cid:145)cabin scooters(cid:146) to be fitted with a triangle in
order to warn other road users of their lower speeds, thus leaving the Member States the option of regulating that
safety aspect of the use of such vehicles.

(1) OJ L 225, 10.8.1992.