The first conference resulted
in the Verona Declaration signed by the 25 EU member states.
This declaration aims to ensure political support and leadership
to implement road safety measures.
Since then similar meetings have been held every year in
Verona, arranged together with the respective holder of the
EU presidency. This year was no exception with transport
Ministers from around Europe gathered in Verona for an informal
conference on road safety on 3-4 November.
This year’s edition raised the concern over progress
made to meet an EU target of a 50 per cent reduction in fatalities
by 2010. The conference aimed to reinvigorate this process
and look beyond 2010 for new goals in road safety.
One of this year’s highlights was the attention given
to the European Road Safety Charter. The Charter, which has
already been signed by more than five hundred stakeholders,
encourages civil society organisations to provide a tangible
contribution to improving road safety in Europe.
In order to underline the importance of this European initiative
and to make it more tangible to the Ministers and their delegations
the European Commission had invited the FIA to participate
in the conference by demonstrating its commitments and explaining
how these will be achieved.
Upon signing the European Road Safety Charter, the FIA committed
itself to encourage all its members to sign up as well, to
promote its members’ road safety engagements, and to
organise a workshop for clubs from the new member states.
Since signing the charter a workshop has been organised
for the new member states’ clubs and a further workshop
is planned for the Romanian and Bulgarian clubs, as well
as clubs from some candidate countries. Over 20 clubs from
across Europe, with the encouragement of the FIA, have also
signed up with their own personal commitments.
The FIA has been promoting the safety campaigns of its members
and has played a very important role in coordinating road
safety work conducted by the clubs through the mobility assessment
programmes EuroTest (general motoring and touring), EuroRAP
(road infrastructure), NPACS (child restraints) and EuroTAP
(tunnels).
The commitments to the European Road Safety Charter have
further enhanced the formidable work done by the automobile
clubs in the field of road safety. Further clubs are in the
signing process and the ultimate goal is to have clubs sign
in all the EU member states.
European clubs who have not signed the Charter yet and would
be interested to do so are invited to contact the FIA European
Bureau.
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