WRITTEN QUESTION E-3172/01 by Maria Sanders-ten Holte (ELDR) to the Commission. Dangers to children travelling as passengers on motorbikes.
Date: 2001-11-19
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: accident prevention, child, drafting of EU law, road safety, road transport, two-wheeled vehicle

C 160 E/66

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

4.7.2002

The White Paper devotes a whole chapter to the Commission’s aim of ‘Linking up the modes of transport’
and to promote intermodality. Rail-road transport is one of the key areas.

Indeed, certain White Paper proposals address the issue of how to transfer road traffic from road to more
environmentally friendly modes, namely the following:

# Framework rules for better reflecting costs of using the transport infrastructure for all modes. This
would, amongst others, allow financing of major railway investments in sensitive zones like the Alps
by road charges (cross-financing).

# The second railway package of measures

to be brought out

in early 2002 will

focus on

interoperability concerns, safety, and opening up the market.

# The Marco Polo programme will seek to promote intermodality generally, and will assist intermodal

services in starting up.

# Certain maritime links, in particular those which allow current road traffic to avoid the bottlenecks

should become part of the Trans-European network.

# An effort will be made to standardise containers and swap bodies.

As regards enforcement of the rules on driving times and rest periods, the Commission is keenly aware
that both enforcement and sanctions are primarily a matter for the Member States. However, it intends to
revise the current Directive 88/599/EEC of 23 November 1988 on standard checking procedures for the
implementation of Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 on the harmonization of certain social legislation relating
to road transport and Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 on recording equipment in road transport (3). The aim
is to propose a higher minimum level of checks both at the roadside and on the premises of road
transport undertakings as well as to harmonise checking procedures and sanctions. Moreover the
Commission is pushing ahead with the introduction of the digital tachograph which will allow secure
recording and storage of data on driving times and rest periods and enable the competent authorities in
Member States to check a greater number of vehicles more swiftly.

(1) COM(2001) 370 final.
(2) OJ L 40, 11.2.1989.
(3) OJ L 325, 29.11.1988.

(2002/C 160 E/075)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3172/01

by Maria Sanders-ten Holte (ELDR) to the Commission

(19 November 2001)

Subject: Dangers to children travelling as passengers on motorbikes

In the Netherlands, there are laws about transporting children in motor vehicles on the public highway.
On mopeds and bicycles proper child-seats are required, yet if children ride pillion on motorbikes, they are
only required to wear helmets.

In practice, this means that some motor-cyclists use child-seats intended for bicycles or mopeds, some
strap the child to themselves and others take no precautions at all. This leads to very dangerous situations,
children generally being less well protected than motor-cyclists are themselves.

As far as I know, no European legislation yet exists on this subject.

4.7.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 160 E/67

1.

Is there a loophole in the law here which endangers children on motorbikes?

2. What legislation exists on this subject in other Member States?

3. Will
framework legislation)?

the Commission investigate this matter, and might

it propose European legislation (e.g.

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(29 January 2002)

The Commission shares the concern of

the Honourable Member about children travelling as
1.
passengers on motorbikes and that this could lead to very dangerous situations. Indeed from the most
recent accident data available in the Community Road Accident Database (CARE), it can be derived that
more than 110 children up to 14 years, travelling as passengers on motorbikes, have been killed on the
Community roads over the years 1991 to 2000.

2.
The Commission is not aware of any specific national legislation existing in the Member States which
goes beyond requiring the wearing of helmets by drivers and passengers on motorbikes as it is the case e.g.
in the Netherlands.

The Commission will further investigate this issue and will

3.
appropriate action in the field of motorcycle safety, taking due account of the principle of subsidiarity.

if necessary, undertake any

indeed,

(2002/C 160 E/076)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3175/01

by Marco Cappato (NI) to the Commission

(13 November 2001)

Subject: Disappearance of Keuakoun, Sisa-At, Phengphanh, Chanmanivong and Keochay

On 15 February 2001 Parliament adopted and forwarded to the Commission an emergency resolution (1)
in which it:

# drew attention to the plight of prisoners of conscience in Laos, notably the five members of the
’26 October 1999 movement’, Keuakoun, Sisa-At, Phengphanh, Chanmanivong and Keochay, who
were arrested on that date and have now disappeared; and

# called on the Laotian authorities to release all prisoners of conscience and guarantee the full exercise
of their fundamental rights, and also to guarantee fundamental civil and political rights by ratifying
and implementing the applicable UN conventions.

Nine months have passed since then, and the Commission, and,
in particular, Mr Chris Patten, the
Commissioner for external affairs, have taken no steps to raise Parliament’s questions with the authorities
in Vientiane.

In an attempt to counteract the Commission’s inaction and make a political gesture in the absence of any
action by Commissioner Patten, Mr Olivier Dupuis, Member of the European Parliament and Secretary of
the Transnational Radical Party, recently visited Laos with four other leading Radical figures, with whom
he re-ran the demonstration held two years before by the democratic student movement. The Radicals
Dupuis, Mellano, Manzi, Lensi and Khramov were all arrested and held in custody, in violation of the
applicable international conventions.

What initiatives does the Commission intend to take with the Laotian authorities in order to ascertain
whether Keuakoun, Sisa-At, Phengphanh, Chanmanivong and Keochay are alive or dead and whether they
have been murdered or kidnapped?

(1) OJ C 276, 1.10.2001, p. 281.