Directive (EU) 2015/413 facilitating cross-border exchange of information on road-safety-related traffic offences Text with EEA relevance

What it is

PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council. BACKGROUND: improving road safety is a prime objective of the Union's transport policy. An important element of that policy is the consistent enforcement of sanctions for road traffic offences committed in the Union which considerably jeopardise road safety. However, due to a lack of appropriate procedures and notwithstanding existing possibilities under Council Decision 2008/615/JHA and Council Decision 2008/616/JHA (the 'Prüm Decisions'), sanctions in the form of financial penalties for certain road traffic offences are often not enforced if those offences are committed with a vehicle, which is registered in a Member State other than the Member State where the offence took place. The Committee on Transport and Tourism adopted the report by Inés AYALA SENDER (S&D, ES) on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on facilitating cross-border exchange of information on road safety related traffic offences. The committee recommended that the European Parliament position adopted at first reading following the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the Commission proposal as follows: Data protection : Members proposed the addition of a new recital which includes the clarifications made by the Council and the suggestion made by the European Data Protection Supervisor. It aims to clarify the new data protection arrangements that need to be applied in respect of the offences covered by this Directive. United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark : an amendment aims to extend by one year (until 6 May 2016 instead of 6 May 2015) the deadline granted to these three Member States in order to transpose the Directive into national legislation. The European Parliament adopted by 640 votes to 61, with 6 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on facilitating cross-border exchange of information on road safety related traffic offences. Parliament adopted its position at first reading following the ordinary legislative procedure. The amendments adopted in plenary amended the Commission proposal as follows: Processing and data protection : Parliament stipulated that the provisions of the Prüm Decisions concerning the technical specifications and the availability of automated data exchange set out in the Prüm Decisions should, as far as possible, be included in this Directive. In the recitals, it is recalled that: (i) Decision 2008/616/JHA specifies the security features for existing software applications and the related technical requirements for the exchange of vehicle registration data (VRD); (ii) the processing of VRD containing personal data is subject to the specific provisions on data protection set out in Decision 2008/615/JHA . United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark : an amendment seeks to postpone, until 6 May 2017, the deadline for these three countries to transpose the directive into national law. Report : the Commission…

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