Vilja Savisaar-Toomast , on behalf of the ALDE Group. – (ET) I too wish to thank the rapporteur, Mrs Sender, and the shadow rapporteurs for their excellent cooperation. This directive is above all necessary to increase protection for our citizens on the roads and to reduce fatalities due to traffic offences. This is a first important step in this direction.

Having myself participated in numerous trialogues and negotiations, I am pleased that we have now reached a principled agreement. Speaking of agreements, I must unfortunately say that, compared with the report at Parliament’s first reading, this draft directive has lost a considerable amount both in terms of content and in terms of impact. The part on enacting penalties has been deleted, under pressure from the Council. We must, however, give the Council recognition for the fact that the increase in the number of offences from four to eight came just after the Council’s first reading. This left the impression that the Council had a sincere wish and desire to deal seriously with this issue. Unfortunately, at the Council’s request, the legal basis was also changed, which left out the aforementioned part on enacting penalties and changed the Directive such that it merely contained cross-border exchange of information. Because the directive focuses exclusively on exchange of information, I made several proposals in this area, most of which found support, and thanks to these, data protection and privacy were treated more clearly and strictly.

I would now like to say more on the proposals that I submitted to this House regarding correlation tables. At Parliament’s first reading and in the Committee on Transport and Tourism’s in May this year, the idea of adding correlation tables to this directive was supported. Unfortunately, despite the opposition of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the last trialogue, this was removed. Today, the Conference of Presidents has unanimously supported correlation tables, which were the result of two decisions at last year’s Conference of Presidents and also the recent decision at the session of 30 June.

On behalf of the ALDE Group, I can clearly state that we support the adoption of this directive. Of course, I am also striving to get the amendments I tabled adopted, but in any case the most important thing is the progress made on the compromise that has been achieved, and the adoption of that compromise.