Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Road Safety Will Be a Main Priority for the EU Countries

The Minister of Transport Peter Mutafchiev attended an informal meeting of the EU Transport Ministers and the associated member countries. The forum took place on November 3^rd and 4^th 2006 in Verona, Italy. The subject of the 4^th Verona Conference of the Transport Ministers was - “Innovative Methods in the Road Safety”.

Questions, connected with the road safety in the European Union were matter of the talks during the conference. The participants discussed the methods for reduction of the road accidents on the territory of the European Union. According to the statistical data, the road catastrophes have caused the death of 132000 people and the injured are more than 5 200 000, with average loses of 2% of the GNP. All participants of the forum joined the idea, that a main priority of the EU countries will be the decrease by half the death as a result of a transport accident, as well as the improvement of the according policies and investments for the fulfillment of this goal. A higher priority for the traffic safety measures must be set up and especially stronger national, regional, and local activities with a continued strengthening of the transport safety measures effectiveness.

The participants of the 4^th Verona Ministers Conference accepted the need of normative, administrative, and economical conditions, directed towards a large scale constantly renewed road safety policies, as well as the developing of innovative activities for the most critical road safety issues.

During the conference Minister Mutafchiev introduced to the participants the national policy for road safety, the measures which have been already taken, as well as the cooperation with the nongovernmental organizations, working on these matters.