Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the "Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directive 77/541/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to safety belts and restraint systems of motor vehicles" (COM(2003) 363 final — 2003/0130 (COD))
Date: 2003-12-10
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: Community certification, EC conformity marking, ESC opinion, approximation of laws, motor vehicle, safety device, technical standard

C 80/10

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

30.3.2004

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Directive of the
European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directive 77/541/EEC on the
approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to safety belts and restraint systems of
motor vehicles’

(COM(2003) 363 final — 2003/0130 (COD))

(2004/C 80/04)

On 3 July 2003 the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee, under
Article 95 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for the Single Market, Production and Consumption, which was responsible for preparing
the Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 12 November 2003. The rapporteur was
Mr Ranocchiari.

At its 404th plenary session (meeting of 10 December 2003), the European Economic and Social
Committee adopted the following opinion by 111 votes to one.

1.

Introduction

1.1.
The proposal under examination is part of the general
regulatory framework concerning type-approval of vehicles
and associated devices.

1.2.
The installation of safety belts and their anchorages is
a technical aspect of particular importance which must be
governed at Community level.

The simultaneous presentation of three proposals for
1.3.
a directive (1)
total
is founded on the basic principle of
harmonisation, by means of a single set of Community rules
and a single approval procedure, followed by simultaneous
entry into force throughout the Union.

The need for these type-approval rules arises from the
1.4.
installation and use of safety belts in a broader range of
vehicles.

1.5.
The compulsory use of safety belts has so far been
limited to passenger cars (Category M1) and to the front seats
only of lighter goods vehicles i.e. maximum weight below
3,5 tonnes (N1). Heavier goods vehicles (N2 and N3), on the
other hand, were excluded, together with minibuses and buses
(M2 and M3).

1.6.
Only recently has compulsory use of safety belts been
extended to all categories of motor vehicles for the carriage of
goods and of passengers (2).

1.7.
Since to date there has been no real Community type-
approval for vehicles other than passenger cars, the Member
States have been able to decide whether or not to apply at
national level the three directives in force, which the present
proposals set out to amend.

1.8.
The provisions concerning heavier vehicles require not
only installing two- or three-point safety belts, but also entail
fixing them to the seats instead of the body structure of the
vehicle as is the case with passenger cars. For this reason,
compliance must be ensured with all three directives together.

2. Comments by the Committee

The EESC welcomes the legislative approach which

2.1.
seeks total harmonisation, in line with Treaty Article 95.

2.2.
The measures set out in the proposal under examin-
ation respond to the need to ensure passenger safety, and are
quite rightly included in the European Road Safety Action
Programme (3).

The EESC raises no formal or substantive objections to
2.3.
the content of proposal COM(2003) 363 final on safety belts
and restraint systems of motor vehicles, since it considers the
amendments to Directive 77/541/EEC to be appropriate and
technically irreproachable.

(1) COM(2003) 363 final, the subject of the present opinion,

is
accompanied by COM(2003) 361 final on seat anchorages and
COM(2003) 362 final on anchorages for safety belts.

(2) Directive 2003/20/EC of 8.4.2003, in OJ L 115, 9.5.2003.
(3) Communication from the Commission COM(2003) 311 final,
2.6.2003, on which the EESC is currently drawing up an opinion.

30.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 80/11

Neither does it have any criticism to make of the three
2.4.
proposed compulsory deadlines relating to type approval and
subsequent vehicle registration.

2.5.
The directive which the proposal wishes to amend
already contains all the necessary technical and administrative
rules for type-approval of vehicles of categories other than M1.

Safety is a universal value which must be promoted by
those concerned. No effort should be spared, either

2.6.
all
economically or technically, in achieving this objective.

2.7. More specifically, the Committee calls for the fourth
paragraph of point 3 of the explanatory memorandum of the
proposal to be corrected, since Directive 91/671/EEC has
already been amended by Directive 2003/20/EC of 8.4.2003,
referred to in the introduction to the present opinion.

The Committee also calls for what appears to be a
2.8.
simple oversight to be corrected in the explanatory memor-
andum. On page 8 of the English language version, the
description of
the content of Article 2 ‘Implementation’
mentions, with regard to obligations relating to type-approval
and vehicle registration, only two dates, whereas the text of
the article contains three.

3. Conclusions

3.1.
The Committee fully supports the proposal’s aim of
introducing ever-higher levels of safety, even where the
planned measures may involve higher costs, as could for
example be the case with coaches. The objective of saving
human lives should be pursued with the most effective means,
always resulting from targeted research, especially if progress
is to be made in achieving the aim of the European Road
Safety Action Programme of halving the number of road
accident victims in the European Union by 2010.

Brussels, 10 December 2003.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Roger BRIESCH