Scope:

Directive (EU) 2015/413 facilitating cross-border exchange of information on road-safety-related traffic offences

Evaluation findings:

According to the evaluation, the Directive has been found to be relatively effective – even if some problems still persist – in removing the anonymity of offenders who committed a road-safety-related traffic offence abroad. However, the measures under the Directive have been found as inadequate to remove their impunity. In 2015, approximatively 50% of detected road traffic offences committed by non-residents were not investigated and approximatively 50 % of the financial penalties for those road traffic offences that had been investigated were not successfully enforced. Practically all offences where offenders refused to pay financial penalties were not enforced i.e. all successfully enforced penalties were due to voluntary payments.

Estimated savings and benefits

The costs incurred by the cross-border exchange of vehicle registration data under the CBE Directive to identify the vehicle owner/holder and by the follow-up procedures after this exchange, which are not covered by the Directive (cross-border investigation of road traffic offences and cross-border enforcement of sanctions for these offences), were evaluated against the objectives of the Directive to be achieved i.e. to increase road safety and to improve the consistent enforcement of sanctions for road traffic offences. Although increased road safety is expected to bring benefits by decreasing related costs (for instance those related to loss of life, medical expenses and loss of labour capacity), the evaluation did not provide evidence of the benefits' magnitude and how far they have been reached. The consistency of enforcement appeared to have improved with the Directive’s implementation but it was not possible to directly quantify the associated benefits.

Nonetheless, most Member States did not seem to consider as excessive the administrative costs of implementing the software applications to exchange vehicle registration data (the annual costs related to the development, support and maintenance of EUCARIS (European car and driving licence information system) and the maintenance of the Member States' national connection to it). It was also concluded that the costs related to the cross-border exchange of vehicle registration data are lower than those related to other stages of the enforcement chain (follow-up procedures). Overall, these costs were quantified as moderate and offset by the revenue generated by the payment of fines.

Although the costs related to implementing the CBE Directive were considered to be rather low, it appeared that there is a margin to reduce them further by narrowing the scope of some activities carried out by Member States.

Member State authorities mentioned that their reporting to the Commission (Article 6 of the CBE Directive) and the sending of an information letter to the non-resident offender in the language of the vehicle’s registration document or in one of the official languages of the Member State of registration (Article 5 of the CBE Directive) require significant internal resources for administrative activities, e.g. to prepare, conduct and follow-up internal and external meetings, retrieve and check information. Although there is a template for the information letter in Annex II to the CBE Directive, and it is translated into all official EU languages, there is a need for special tools that would facilitate the translation of the additional information required in the letter or of the answers of non-resident offenders (provided in their native language).

Member States could save time spent on preparing the comprehensive report they must submit to the Commission every other year if the reporting functionality of EUCARIS was further improved so as to automatically report to the Commission the number of carried out (outgoing) and failed searches.

Based on estimates made during the impact assessment for the CBE Directive proposal in 2008, the costs related to the cross-border exchange of vehicle registration data can be considered to be insignificant in comparison to the costs related to follow-up procedures under the Directive. It appeared to be significantly more expensive for Member States to continue the cases once the vehicle’s owner/holder is identified (from EUR 5 million to EUR 6.5 million per year for the EU-27¹) than to get the necessary information that allows them to initiate follow-up actions (highest annual costs of exchanging vehicle registration data in 2013-2017 are estimated at EUR 1.3 million for the EU-28).

According to the information provided by France, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Croatia and the Netherlands, the estimated revenue generated by the CBE Directive (from paid fines) significantly increased between 2013 and 2014 (multiplied by more than 2.5) and increased slightly in general between 2014 and 2015 (by 2 %). For Hungary and Poland, the revenue significantly increased between 2014 and 2015, though it decreased for France and Belgium. No comparison could be made for the Netherlands and Croatia, since their data are only available for 2015. It should also be noted that the revenue varied by up to 100 % between the lowest and highest estimates — from EUR 37 million to EUR 58 million in 2013; from EUR 104 million to EUR 172 million in 2014 and from EUR 134 million to EUR 231 million in 2015.

The costs of implementing the CBE Directive in the EU-28 (including those related to the follow-up procedures) were estimated over the years 2011 – 2016 as to never have exceeded EUR 7.8 million per year. Member States’ increased use of EUCARIS to carry out automated exchange of vehicle registration data combined with the improved quality of the exchange should increase the chance of revenue being even higher.

¹ At the time of the impact assessment, Croatia was not in the EU.

Which objective(s) does the Commission pursue?

The proposal is intended to reduce enforcement costs for Member States authorities incurred by cross-border investigation of road-safety-related traffic offences. The proposed measures should lead to decreasing investigation time and related costs per offence that is to be achieved by (1) improving the exchange of information between authorities, including access and content of the registers; (2) creating tailored cross-border investigation mechanism to establish better who is personally liable for the offence, including a duty to cooperate with enforcement authorities in the identification of actual offender, where possible.

The proposal should result in reduction of hassle costs for road users due to improved content of information letters/penalty notices and the follow-up communication with offenders (better protection of fundamental rights). Furthermore, a reduction of administrative costs for car leasing and rental companies is envisaged, since cross-border exchange of information on the actual user of the vehicle will be allowed.

The initiative encompasses the “digital by default” principle¹ as it fosters digital transformation, where possible. For example, it proposes digitised follow-up procedures related to cross-border enforcement of sanctions for the offences covered by the CBE Directive, including introducing standardised digital forms translated in all official EU languages which would simplify their exchange.

Estimated savings and benefits

According to the impact assessment, the proposal put forward is expected to be effective in increasing the share of successfully investigated offences and it should lead to higher enforcement costs due to the higher number of penalty notices issued. Additional enforcement costs for Member States authorities are estimated at EUR 136.8 million relative to the baseline, expressed as present value over the 2025-2050 period. This includes one-off adjustment costs of EUR 4.6 million for Member States administrations (e.g. to adapt IT systems). It is expected that these relatively low additional costs would be outweighed by additional revenues from the payment of the penalties, although such impacts could not be assessed. Furthermore, leasing companies can expect annual savings of around EUR 7 million relative to the baseline, expressed as present value over the assessment period 2025-2050, as they will be faced with less administrative burden when the identity of the vehicle keeper (the lessee) can be directly retrieved from the vehicle registration data.

¹ Commission Communication, 2030 Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade, COM(2021) 118