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Mobility & Transport - Road Safety
News article16 September 2019

European Road Safety Roundtable: Commission and European cities hand over road safety commitments to NGOs

On the occasion of the opening of this year’s European Mobility Week, the European Commission and the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety co-organised a Road Safety Roundtable in Brussels. During this event, two commitments were handed over to the NGOs: One from the European Commission and the EU Member States, namely the target of halving the number of fatalities and serious injuries on European roads between 2020 and 2030, and one from European cities, a Declaration entitled “The New Paradigm for Safe City Streets” (https://www.polisnetwork.eu/roadsafety and http://eurocities.eu/eurocities/home#mobility). The Global Alliance is collecting commitments around the world in the run-up to the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Stockholm in February 2020.

Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said: “The Stockholm conference will be a crucial milestone in our fight for safer roads worldwide. I am pleased that we in the EU, with strong support from national governments, are able to lead the way. I invite all other regions worldwide to set ambitious targets and to follow them through with detailed monitoring, as we do. I am also grateful that we have been able to link this work with the fantastic, but often little recognised, work that many European cities do. I congratulate the first signatories of the city declaration and encourage all cities across Europe to follow their example.”

Lotte Brondum, Executive Director of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, said: “Every single life lost or injured on the roads is unacceptable. We congratulate the European Union and its Member States on their commitment today for a measurable target to halve the number of road deaths and injuries. Now it is the turn of national and local governments to translate this commitment into specific, tangible actions. NGOs across Europe are ready and equipped to help them so that every citizen comes home safely every day. We also welcome the New Paradigm for Safe City Streets that will make our urban roads safer and more liveable for everyone, especially the most vulnerable road users.”

On the occasion of the roundtable, Commissioner Bulc also announced an “Urban Road Safety Award” for cities, to be handed out next spring. More details can be found at http://mobilityweek.eu/Urban-Road-Safety-Award

  • About the EU commitment

The European Commission and the EU Member States committed to their target of reducing fatalities and serious injuries on the roads by 50% between 2020 and 2030. This commitment follows from the Valletta Declaration on Road Safety by EU transport ministers and was concretised in the EU Commission’s Road Safety Policy Framework 2021-2030, which also contains a list of 8 key performance indicators to monitor progress. Data collection across the EU will start in 2020.

  • About the cities’ commitment

The city networks POLIS and EUROCITIES have initiated ‘The New Paradigm for Safe City Streets’. The declaration presents 10 principles for road safety work at local level to guide concrete action for safe and sustainable mobility. The first signatories of the declaration are Arad (Romania), Arnhem Nijmegen region (The Netherlands), Barcelona (Spain), Berlin (Germany), Farkadona (Greece), Helmond (The Netherlands), Lisbon (Portugal), London (UK), Madrid (Spain) and Schaarbeek (Belgium).

Signatures will be gathered in the coming months and published online at https://www.polisnetwork.eu/roadsafety and http://eurocities.eu/eurocities/home#mobility.

  • About the Round the World Roundtables

The Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety organises roundtables around the world and collects road safety commitments from governments, to be presented to the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, in Stockholm on 19-20 February 2020. This conference will discuss global efforts to drastically reduce the number of severe road crashes, causing 1.35 million deaths worldwide every year. A pivotal question to be discussed will be global target setting for the period 2020-2030, given that the current target (50% reduction of fatalities by 2020) is likely to be missed.

Details

Publication date
16 September 2019