Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

I am convinced that today’s debates will contribute to the improvement of control, exchange of information and best practices and thus increase safety and security on the roads, said the Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Anton Ginev during today’s opening of the annual Euro Control Route Conference in Sofia.

Various issues related to the activities of the control authorities and the carriers in the automobile sector were discussed. Relying upon the experience of their ECR partners the Bulgarian bodies seek opportunities to avoid obstacles in control that stem from the multilingualism among carriers from other countries.

Deputy Minister Ginev said that in order to overcome those difficulties the Bulgarian party had presented to the participants in the forum a project for an information system for electronic filing of violations and sanction. The system will be used by the Bulgarian control bodies at Executive Agency Automobile Administration. The programme is to have a Multilanguage interface and thus road inspectors will be able to issue a ticket in two languages. Thus the problem with the language barrier will be solved, the time for carrying out the checks and document preparation will be shortened and there will be the possibility for paying the fines in real time by credit cards.

This month marks 15 years of the establishment of ECR. In 1994 the inspection services of the Benelux countries established a working group for synchronization of inspection procedures aimed at increasing road safety in Europe. In 1999 several other countries joined the group and it turned into an organization – Euro Control Route. The ECR activities focus on training of inspectors, exchange of information and coordinated control, developing single procedures for inspection and implementation of the unified legislation and best practices. Bulgaria joined the organization in 2007. Currently there are 14 ECR member states and 4 observing countries. In July 2013 Bulgaria succeeded Ireland in the Presidency of the organization for a year. During the event the Bulgarian party passed the Presidency to the Netherlands. During the one-year mandate the ECR Executive Committee gathered in Brussels every month and those meetings were also presided by the Bulgarian party to discuss important issues related to the improvement of control activity, exchange of information and best practices.