Issued 17 Jun 2005   Appeal to the members of the European Parliament

Today, "permis de conduire" is the French expression for the "driving license", the administrative document designed to allow any citizen of age to drive a motorised vehicle- it also literally means "allowed to drive". However in the light of the ongoing discussions on the 3rd Driving License directive the same expression could well in the immediate future apply to motorcycling in the form of a question: "will you be allowed to ride a motorcycle?" To be more precise, with the new directive, will it be practical or even affordable for the average European citizen, to progressively access motorcycles?

The Luxembourg Presidency is currently proposing to Rapporteur MEP Mr Grosch and the European Parliament delegation that the average European citizen would have to undergo a full theoretical and practical test to ride a light motorcycle. This is logical.

However, having ridden such vehicle for two years, the rider would then have to go through another full practical test to gain access to middle-sized motorcycles. Furthermore, after two more years of experience on a middle-sized motorcycle, the rider would be called again to undergo for the third time a full practical test, to eventually access full-sized motorcycles. This is not logical.

In alternative to this sequence of tests, repeating notions already acquired previously, a Member State could even choose to each time put the rider through mandatory training designed along the skills required to be demonstrated in the test. The Council leaves the amount of hours for this expensive training (at least 5 hours… with no upper limit, at an average cost of 70 an hour) up to the Member States (read: the commercial training providers). On top of that, it neglects that the rider would have to each time set aside time from work over several days for this training, which might not even be available near his home, or even in his town. How illogical is that?

The Council completely fails to recognise and properly reward the experience gained on the road on smaller vehicles, which is the basis for an attractive progressive access scheme. Instead, it creates unjustified and expensive time-consuming hurdles for the citizen. FEMA, as the European representative of motorcyclists, is appalled by the lack of logic of this proposal. The system proposed by the Council should be refused as it is in fact short-circuiting the spirit of progressive access, and even deterring from accessing motorcycles, a vehicle providing basic mobility to the citizens. Furthermore, Mr Smith, Monsieur Dupond or Signor Rossi in their respective countries might have to go through this access scheme at very different ages, when the European Commission intention was to make the licensing system more transparent to the citizen and the enforcement authorities.

FEMA urges the European Parliament not to accept this illogical and unbalanced system of access to motorcycles only for the sake of achieving a quick completion of the overall 3rd Driving Licence package under the Luxembourg Presidency, before the end of June. FEMA has made proposals for a logical and attractive access scheme to motorcycles to Rapporteur MEP Mr Grosch and the European Parliament delegation. As citizens, we ask the European Parliament to take the necessary time to properly reflect on them. Quick legislation often equals to bad legislation.



ENDS

Issued by Filippo Marino

Campaigns Officer
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FEMA - Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations
Rue des Champs 62, 1040 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 736 9047 / Fax: +32 (0)2 736 9401
www.fema.ridersrights.org