In February 2021, the European Parliament was working on draft laws aimed at making technical inspections of motorcycles compulsory within the European Union. At the time, the exact dates were not set in stone, but the European Parliament's Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) had formally asked the European Commission to include motorized two-wheelers in its future regulations. .
Seven months later, many motorcycle advocacy groups in at least three countries have fought to keep these requirements from seeing the light of day. As stated by the general secretary of FEMA, the Federation of European Motorcycle Associations, Dolf Willigers, “The discussion on the periodic technical inspection of motorcycles is very old, in which various parties argue that this would be beneficial for road safety. However, there is no evidence that the technical condition of motorcycles plays a significant role in accidents. »
“The available reports on motorcycle accidents all point in the opposite direction: the technical condition of motorcycles plays only a very marginal role in accidents. Road user training, behavioral aspects, infrastructure and enforcement of existing traffic rules play a much more important role in road safety than periodic technical inspections ever will,” concluded Dolf Willigers.
Of course, one would expect a group like FEMA to come out against this proposal. After all, such legislation would hardly be in the interests of European motorcyclists. Indeed, since September 2021, several FEMA member associations located in different European countries have also been engaged in the fight to prevent these periodic checks from starting.
In Finland, the SMOTO motorcycle association specifically inquired about this matter with the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications, which directly stated that it is currently not planning to introduce periodic technical inspections for motorcycles in the country . Much of this has to do with the fact that the Finnish motorcycling season simply isn't as long as in some Southern European countries, so such a move wouldn't make much sense.
Meanwhile, in Denmark, the Ministry of Transport aims for roadside checks rather than periodic checks of motorcycles. Such a program would focus on motorcycles that are having problems, rather than targeting all motorcycles.
In France, members of the French Motorcycling Federation and the French Federation of Angry Bikers met the Minister of Transport at the beginning of September 2021. At the end of the meeting, he declared in an interview: “There will be no technical inspection for two-wheelers as planned. We are going to rethink the system. »
In a word, the battle is not over, but things seem to be moving forward.
