IP/09/422

Brussels, 19 March 2009

Road Safety: Commission sends a reasoned opinion to Cyprus, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom for failing to act on blind spot mirrors on trucks

Today, the European Commission has been sent reasoned opinions to Cyprus, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom for failing to transpose existing European legislation on the retrofitting of blind spot mirrors on time. The four Member States have two months to act if they want to avoid being taken to the European Court of Justice.

Cyprus, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom have not informed the Commission on the transposition of the EU Directive on the retrofitting of mirrors to heavy goods vehicles registered in the Community^[1] into their national legislation. All Member States were required to do so by 6th August 2008 at the latest.

The Directive obliges Member States to require that trucks above 3.5 t gross weight which are not already equipped on the passenger side with wide-angle and close-proximity mirrors be retrofitted with such mirrors in order to reduce the number of accidents involving in particular cyclists and motorcyclists. The use of such mirrors will help lorry drivers to notice them when they take a turn.

A Reasoned Opinion represents the second step of the infringement procedure under Article 226 of the EC Treaty.

^[1] Directive 2007/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on the retrofitting of mirrors to heavy goods vehicles registered in the Community, OJ L 184, 14.7.2007, p. 25–28