Cross-border exchange of information on road safety related traffic offences

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 shall, by 7 November 2016 at the latest, report on the application of this Directive.