Road safety: speed limitation devices for commercial motor vehicles (amend. Directive 92/6/EEC)

The Council in adopting its common position (the UK voting against) decided on a number of amendments on the Commission proposal which can be summarised as follows; - the setting of the speed limitation devices has been harmonised for all vehicles falling within the scope of the directive; hence, the speed limitation devices for all motor vehicles of categories M2, M3, N2 and N3 should be set in way that the speed of the vehicle cannot exceed the maximum speeds of 100 km/h for the M2 and M3 categories and 90 km/h for N2 and N3 vehicles; - the Directive should be applied two years after its entry into force, rather than on 1 January 2004; - the "retrofitting" of vehicles is being limited to vehicles complying with the limit values set out in Directive 88/77/EEC (EURO 3 emission norms) registered as from 1 October 2001; - Member States may, for a period of no more than 3 years following the deadline for transposing the Directive into national law, exempt vehicles of category M2 and N2 with a maximum mass of more than 3,5 tonnes but not exceeding 7,5 tonnes inasmuch as these vehicles are registered in their territory and do not travel on the territory of another Member State; The Commission has also been requested to assess, as part of the road safety action programme for the period 2002-2010, the road safety and road traffic implications of adjusting the limitation devices used by category M2 vehicles and by category N2 vehicles with a maximum mass of 7,5 tonnes or less to the speeds laid down by the Directive. According to its initiative rights, the Commission shall submit appropriate proposals; - the Member States are also allowed to require that speed limitation devices in vehicles N2 and N3 registered in their territory and for the exclusive use of dangerous goods can be set in such a way that those vehicles cannot exceed a maximum speed of less than 90 km/h. Furthermore, the Council could not accept Parliament's amendment on the possibility of exceeding the maximum speed on a strictly time-limited basis for overtaking slow vehicles - the desirability and the technical feasibility of which the Commission is invited to review in virtue of this amendment - would pose problems in its practical application and is deemed to be incompatible with the overall principles and concepts underlying Council's common position.�