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European Union drivers committing traffic offences abroad will be punished in their home country on return under a proposed new law.
"The idea is to make it possible to punish traffic offences committed in one EU country, in another EU country," Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said. The planned law will target drink-driving, speeding and failure to wear a seat-belt.
The legislation, which must be cleared by EU governments, will require heavy work before implementation because members must first create a system to exchange information on driving offences and agree on their mutual recognition.
Some countries already co-operate. Belgian drivers photographed speeding in France are likely to receive tickets at home, but Poles can feel safe once they cross their border.
The planned law is part of the European Commission's target to improve road safety and halve deaths on roads to 25,000 in 2010.
The commission is recommending improving road infrastructure, first aid for victims, the use of daytime running lights, improving technical standards of cars and cutting legal alcohol limits for drivers.
The commission's survey showed that in the Czech Republic, where drivers cannot drink alcohol at all, only 4.8 per cent of deaths on the road result from drink driving.
In France and Spain, where the limit is 0.5 milligrammes of alcohol per millitre of blood, it is 28.8 per cent and 29.5 per cent, respectively.
The survey also showed the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have the most dangerous roads, and Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden and Britain the safest.
In Latvia, 223 people died in car accidents last year for each one million inhabitants, compared with 43 in the Netherlands, 49 in Sweden and 56 in Britain.
The new EU member states in central and eastern Europe tended to be more dangerous places to drive than the western, because an increase in the number of cars since the fall of communism in 1989 had often not been matched by improvements in road infrastructure, Barrot said.
- Reuters
