European Commission - Road Safety -

Enforcement

Enforcement of traffic rules means making sure that they are being applied. Different aspects or stages are part of enforcement:

Checks to find violations of traffic rules and
Sanctions imposed on violators of the rules: Sanctions can be imposed in different ways, for instance directly on the spot (e.g. on-the-spot-fines), automatically as a follow-up of checking violations (e.g. by automated speed cameras), by separate administrative decisions or by court decisions.

Directive facilitating cross-border enforcement in the field of road safety

The proposal for a Directive facilitating the cross-border enforcement of traffic offences which imperil road safety has been adopted by the Commission on 19 March 2008. The objective of this Directive is to facilitate the enforcement of financial penalties against drivers who commit an offence in another Member State than the one where the vehicle concerned is registered.

The proposed Directive will cover four types of road traffic offence: speeding, drink-driving, not wearing a seat belt and failing to stop at a red light.

The text of the adopted Directive proposal, the Impact Assessment with its Summary, the Press Release, the Citizen's Summary and the Frequently Asked Questions are available:

Commission Recommendation (2004/345/EC) on enforcement in the field of road safety

This Recommendation, which was adopted by the Commission on 21 October 2003, encourages Member States to apply good enforcement practices in the field of speeding, drink-driving and non-use of a seat belt. A Communication adopted by the Commission on the same day gives further explanations on the contents of this Recommendation.

Research and best practice experiences show that the application of good enforcement practices could result in a reduction of 5000 road deaths in the EU per year.