EU roads are too dangerous

Written by Diana Wallis MEP and published in New Europe on Mon 29th Jan 2007

The best place to start is with some statistics. In one year; 2004 and in one Member State; Germany, 50,200 foreigners were involved in road traffic accidents. In one year a large British law firm reckons to open 6,000 new cases involving British citizens injured whilst in other EU member countries. No conclusive Europe-wide figures exist but from those stated above one can imagine that applied across twenty seven countries the numbers are persuasive. All these people will have to use national legal systems and laws that were set up to deal with national problems, occurring within their own borders. Once a cross border element is introduced into any legal case, and despite the activities of the European legislator, it is still an expensive minefield for our citizens.

However, expense is not the only trap awaiting the unwary. National lawyers who are normally trained exclusively within their own system may not be aware of certain very important time limits which operate in the courts of the country where the action has to be brought. Once this so-called "limitation period" has passed, no action can be brought and the victim is left without redress or compensation. Lawyers are properly and professionally expected to know their own national law, but not the individual quirks of 27 different systems. That is the difficulty: national time limits vary considerably between Member States; there is every possible permutation from 1 year to 30 years. In some Member States, the time periods differ depending on whether the action is based in contract or tort (a non-contractual obligation), or indeed upon the type of accident. Again, in some Member States, there are separate and different time limits for the criminal cases which can also be brought after a road accident.

Some months ago, the members of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament were approached by a pan-European association of lawyers, whose members specialise in personal injury actions. As our citizens become more and more mobile across the European Union, so this group of professionals has seen more and more victims of cross borders accidents, many of whom suffer not only from their injuries but also from the vagaries and differences in our systems of national procedural law. To them, limitation periods is one glaring area where the European legislator, who has encouraged these citizens to take advantage of free movement, ought to step in. We have taken down the frontiers but we have not forged a justice system equal to the task of delivering real cross border access to justice.

There are indeed many obstacles to cross border access to justice. However, by aligning limitation periods in cross border accidents, we would take away one small but potentially fatal stumbling block. The options available for action would range from an alignment of limitation periods to four years to the use of a conflict of laws rule. This refers absolutely only to cross border incidents and does not touch ordinary national cases. Legal practitioners, insurers and many others are lobbying across Europe in support of this small own-initiative report by the Legal Affairs Committee. It is one small practical step that could save many unfortunate citizens from disappointment and misery following some already traumatic event. This is what Europe should really be about; making sure that our citizens are practically assisted when things go wrong in their daily lives, as they exercise their freedom of movement as workers, students, tourists or indeed residents in another Member State.

Note: The limitation periods report will be adopted by the European Parliament on 30 January.

Diana Wallis MEP

Vice President

ALDE coordinator for Legal Affairs

www.dianawallis.eu