“European Commission reneges on road safety promises: New trade deal ‘Framework’ could open door to dangerous US pick-up trucks.”
“Mutual Recognition Deal with U.S. Will Cost Lives on Europe’s Roads.”
The headlines from two non governmental groups, the European Cyclists’ Federation, and the European Transport Safety Council, respectively, raise serious safety concerns about a recent Joint Statement on transatlantic trade and investment by the European Union and the United States about intentions to accept and provide mutual recognition to each other’s automobile standards.
Both groups expressed fear that the agreement will expose EU citizens to higher road risks.
"By signing up to mutual recognition of vehicle standards with the United States, the European Union has waved the white flag on road safety,” Antonio Avenoso, executive director of the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), a Brussels-based independent non-profit organization, said in a statement. “This is not a technical detail - it is a political choice that puts trade convenience ahead of saving lives.”
The European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), a Brussels-based nonprofit umbrella group with more than 70 member organizations in over 40 countries, called the deal a complete reversal of a promise made by the European Commission.
“This framework agreement is a betrayal of the EU’s commitment to road safety,” Fabian Küster, director of advocacy and EU affairs at the ECF, said in a statement. “By accepting mutual recognition of vehicle standards with the United States, the European Commission is opening the door to vehicles that do not meet our hard-won safety regulations. We call on the Commission to retract this dangerous clause and uphold its promise to protect EU citizens.”
The US and EU agreement is “a concrete demonstration of our commitment to fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial trade and investment,” according to the European Commission, which published the statement in late August: “This Framework Agreement will put our trade and investment relationship – one of the largest in the world – on a solid footing and will reinvigorate our economies’ reindustrialisation. It reflects acknowledgement by the European Union of the concerns of the United States and our joint determination to resolve our trade imbalances and unleash the full potential of our combined economic power.”
The EU statement indicated that the agreement is a first step that can be expanded over time to continue to improve market access and increase the trade and investment relationship.
The ECF said recognizing US vehicle standards for vehicles entering the EU “would have a severe deleterious effect on the safety of cyclists and pedestrians, and all other road users. It would completely undermine the recently updated General Safety Regulations.”
The cyclists’ group also raised concern about popular, very large and heavy “pick-up” truck-style vehicles, like the Ford F150, in the U.S. market that are not manufactured in the EU and are rare on EU roads. These vehicles, with “very high bonnets with poor direct vision and limited safety assistance devices. They have been shown to be more dangerous to cyclists and pedestrians than other vehicles. Mutual recognition could open the floodgate to these massive and dangerous vehicles.”
Avenoso of the ETSC said that "Europe risks being flooded with oversized, under-regulated U.S. pick-up trucks and SUVs, vehicles that are heavier, more dangerous to other car drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, and completely out of step with Europe’s vision for safer, more sustainable mobility."
The ECF pointed out the stark contrasts between toad safety in the two regions. In the EU, road fatalities fell by 21% since 2010, but in the US during the same time period, deaths increased by around 30%, and pedestrian and cyclist vehicle crash deaths skyrocketed.
“These figures have now reached their highest levels in 40 years,” it noted. If the current agreement is implemented and U.S. vehicle standards are recognized in the EU, it will have a “huge impact” on the safety standard of its vehicle fleet.
"Europe’s mandatory requirements for life-saving technologies such as automated emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance and pedestrian protection have made our cars safer and our roads less deadly,” Avenoso of the ETSC added. “None of these protections are guaranteed under U.S. rules.
“Allowing American vehicles onto the EU market on the basis of ‘mutual recognition’ of standards,” he said, "is a betrayal of Europe’s safety leadership, and it will cost lives.”
To read the full joint statement agreement, click here.