Brussels, 24th May 2018 – The European Commission has today released a proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the revision of the insurance against civil liability with regard to the use of motor vehicles. The mentioned proposal includes Electrically Power Assisted Cycles in the scope of the revision and aims at making a third-party liability insurance mandatory for all EPAC users.
Although Electrically Power Assisted Cycles (EPACs) have an element of electric power assist, this power assist is designed to complement rather than replace the main propulsion, which is by human muscle energy through manual pedalling: EPACs provide electrical assistance to the cyclist only while pedalling, up to a speed of 25km/h and that has maximum 250W. EPACs are excluded from the scope of the EU Type-Approval (Reg. EU 168/2013) because they are not considered, from a regulatory point of view, to be motor vehicles.
CONEBI agrees with the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF) that if today`s proposal becomes law, third-party liability insurance will discourage millions of European citizens to use EPACs, undermine the efforts and investments of Member States as well as the ones of the European Union to promote sustainable mobility.
Moreover, the European Commission’s proposal – if accepted by the European Parliament and the Council – will put at risk thousands of jobs and jeopardise the development of a sector that has been able to invent one of the most appreciated means of transportation and leisure all over Europe. Two million EPACs were sold in the European market in 2017: a strong contribution to transport’s decarbonisation that should be seriously taken into consideration.
CONEBI, together with the European Cyclists’ Federation ECF, will immediately start the discussion with the European Parliament and the Council on the detrimental impact that the Commission’s proposal would have if the mentioned proposal is going to be accepted as such by the other EU co-legislators.
The European Commission’s proposal is available at the following link.
You can download the full Press Release here.
