Brian Simpson  overwhelmingly backed plans in Strasbourg to establish a system to enforce penalties against drivers who commit an offence in another EU Member State. The proposal is seen by MEPs as an important step in creating a comprehensive approach to road safety enforcement across the EU.

This legislation will allow enforcement agencies, for the first time, to chase up drivers who have committed offences abroad, with a vehicle registered in another EU member state.

This will be done through the creation of an EU electronic system of data exchange which will enable Member States to trace non-resident vehicles, where a driving offence has been spotted.

The Socialist Group Transport spokesperson in the European Parliament, Brian Simpson MEP welcomed the vote saying; "It is nonsense that EU citizens cannot be punished for reckless driving simply because they happen to do it in another member state".

"We need to tighten enforcement laws across the EU if we are really serious about improving our road safety record".

Initially only four offences will be under the scope of this legislation and these will include

• speeding,
• drink driving,
• not using a seatbelt
• failure to stop at a red light.

However, Parliament's report does leave the door open for the Commission to look at extending this to other offences further down the line.

"I think it is important that we also have the possibility to extend cross border enforcement of traffic offences in future to other offences like drug driving and non payment of congestion charges" added Mr Simpson.

Ends.