Transport of dangerous goods by road: uniform procedures for checks

In January 1997, the EU Council Directive on uniform checking procedures for those transporting dangerous goods came into force. Provisions in the Directive stipulate that Member States are to send an annual report to the Commission on the application of the Directive. It also stipulates that the Commission is obliged to forward a report on the application of the Directive to the European Parliament and Council every three years. This is the third report to be forwarded by the Commission, the content of which is based on the annual reports forwarded by the Member States. It covers the years 2003-2005. Due to the enlargement of the EU in 2004 ten new Member States appear in this report. The new Member States were only obliged to provide data for the years 2004-2005.

One of the aims of the Directive is to further improve the level of safety by ensuring that a sufficient level of checks is carried out. The frequency of road checks in the Member States in the period 2003-2005 is in the chart of Annex II. On the basis of this chart and the results from former reports it can be concluded that:

1)      The frequency of checks in the European Union as a whole decreased from 0.27 % (1997-1998) to 0.23 % (1999-2002) and, with most of the new Member States included since 2004, increased to 0.29 % (2003-2005).

2)      In the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Slovenia the frequency of checks in the period 2003-2005 is above 0.60 %, in Austria, Spain, France, Poland and Sweden it is around 0.25 %, in Belgium, Finland and Malta slightly over 0.10 % and in the other countries 0.06 % or even less.

3)      In the countries where the level of checks is highest, it is above 30 times higher than in the countries where the level is lowest. Hungary's data is markedly in excess of other Member States' data.

The conclusions of the report are as follows:

Although most of the Member States performed roadside checks on the transport of dangerous goods between 2003 and 2005, the frequency of checks varied considerably from Member State to Member State, although the average frequency of checks in the EU, taking into account the 2004 enlargement, has increased in the past few years. The number of vehicles that have been found to infringe EU legislation justifies the continued need for checks. The Commission report stresses that road checks are an effective tool in revealing the kind of problems connected to transporting dangerous good. Checks conducted in premises ( as was the case in some Member States) is considered to be an equally effective means of enforcement, albeit one that this not apparent from the annexes to this report. On a final point, the Commission requests the Member States to use the harmonised reporting forms when forwarding data to the Commission. The introduction and application of the new infringement risk categories in all Member States should provide for better reports in the future.