One of the EU’s road safety targets is to reduce the number of serious injuries and road accident victims to zero by 2050. To achieve this, member countries are sharing best practices in road safety, including harmonisation of rules and penalties. Traffic laws are very similar in all European countries, and so are traffic fines. In 2025, a new EU directive comes into force that sets out a series of traffic rules that each EU country will be able to send to drivers from other European countries, extending the initial list.
- failing to keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you
- dangerous overtaking
- dangerous parking or stopping
- crossing one or more solid white lines
- driving in the wrong direction
- failure to comply with the rules concerning the creation and use of emergency corridors or to give way to emergency service vehicles
- driving with an excessive load
- failure to comply with rules on vehicle access restrictions related to road safety
- fleeing after an accident or a hit-and-run accident
- failure to respect the rules at railway level crossings
The aim of this measure is to ensure that drivers who endanger other road users are penalised regardless of the country in which the offence takes place. Last year, 20 000 people lost their lives on Europe’s roads. Let us hope that this figure is drastically reduced.