Norway joins declaration on road safety

traffic accidentsIllustration.Traffic accidents.Photo: Norway Today Media

Norway joined the declaration on road safety at the EU Transport Ministerial meeting, according to a Press Statement from the Ministry of Transport today.

– It is positive with a common European discussion of how we together can reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries related to traffic, so we will step up efforts to reach the European goal for 2020 of halving the numbers. I think that the declaration can help to lift this work, State secretary Tom Cato Karlsen, said.

State Secretary Karlsen led the Norwegian delegation at the informal EU Transport Ministerial meeting in Valletta, the capital of Malta on March 29th. The meeting was organized by the Maltese EU presidency.

Valletta Declaration

In 2016, 25,500 people lost their lives in traffic in the EU. This means that, on average there are seventy people killed every day.

The EU aims to halve the number of people killed in traffic from 31,500 in 2010 to around 15,750 in 2020. Over the past six years there has been a reduction of 19 percent. The goal of halving the number of people killed in road traffic between 2010 and 2020 is becoming increasingly challenging to reach. The purpose of the Ministerial meeting was therefore defining a direction for traffic policy.

At the meeting, the Ministers adhered to the Valletta Declaration, and thereby gave renewed support to improved traffic safety in Europe. The declaration contains aspirations in several areas that are important for road safety. The initiative this time comes from the Member States themselves. The declaration asks the European Commission among others to develop a new road safety strategy and new objectives, which should also include serious injuries for the period 2020-2030.

Cooperation with the European Union to facilitate self-driving cars

Norway supports EU’s efforts to facilitate the introduction of interconnected and self-running vehicles in the marketplace. Norwegian authorities wish to play an active role in this partnership. Joint efforts in Europe are important in order to facilitate further development of technology. In the longer-term the goal is that such cooperation will increase road safety.

 

Source: government.no / Norway Today