EU Horrors

Everything you need to know about the terrifying next wave of European legislation

By James Clark

Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

From straightening the humble banana to mighty legislation on human rights, EU regulations are rarely far from the tabloid front pages.

Yet we Brits seem to treat Brussels and Strasbourg with indifference, which is a pity because whilst most motorcyclists were looking the other way momentous things were happening there.

Now they’re about to happen to you.

Sounds alarming, what’s the problem?

New “framework” regulations are proposed by the European Commission in conjunction with the road safety committees of the United Nations and the World Health Organisation (really, they have road safety committees).

They’re aimed at increasing rider safety,

Good news then? You decide.

The new rules affect how you can modify your bike, who can repair it, what will turn it into an illegal machine, which features you will have to have on it when you buy it (with associated costs, of course) and they’ll combine with EU driving license legislation already passed, and more proposed, to force new riders into yet more tests and training if they want to move up to bigger, more powerful machines.

That doesn’t sound good...

No.

Paul Turner, the National Chairman and Director of MAG, the Motorcycle Action Group, would agree: “This’ll kill everything, it really will - the custom market, the whole lot. It’s really terrible. This stuff will stop you doing what you want to do.”

Trevor Baird, who runs the campaign group Right To Ride EU, paints a similarly bleak picture. “For riders of new bikes this will vastly increase the cost of riding and owning a motorcycle, it’ll make riding much more complicated and limit what people can ride.”

Labour MP John Woodcock, who’s emerged as a key supporter of riders since arriving in Parliament at the last election, told Ride: “British ministers should wake up to these new proposals from Europe and listen to the concerns being expressed by riders, our reborn British motorcycle manufacturing industry, and the huge servicing, customisation and after-market parts sectors.”

Arrgghh! What? When? HOW?

Arrgghh indeed.

The European Parliament’s powerful Committee on The Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) has been looking at the proposals from the European Commission and offering amendments before they become formal regulations.

The key figure in all this is Dutch MEP Wim van de Camp, the Rapporteur of the IMCO committee (in other words the man who has the task of coming up with those amendments). On the upside, he is a biker (he rides an R1). The downside, at least according to some campaigners, is he’s an MEP first and a rider second.

Aline Delhaye, General Secretary of FEMA (The Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Organisations - which is funded by rider members and domestic riders’ groups like the BMF and MAG in the UK to represent riders’ interests in Europe), thinks van de Camp is doing his best for riders.

“We don’t agree with everything he says,” she told Ride, “but without van de Camp some of the proposals coming from the Greens and others would have gone unchallenged and this would have been much, much worse. That doesn’t mean it’s good, though, but we’re still fighting.”

The IMCO report will be handed in this month. The Parliament as whole will vote on the proposals in October before they are finally signed off by the Council of Europe, aiming to see them implemented at various times from immediately to 2017.

The Devil’s In The Detail

So what, exactly, is proposed?

1)   “Anti-tampering”

Restrictions will be imposed on how you can modify bikes bought after a set date in three areas: emissions, power and safety.

Trevor Baird again: “Effectively that’s everything which isn’t wholly cosmetic. After-market exhausts, everything from throttle to sprocket, power commanders, quick-shifters, you name it. It could even leave riders forced to fit only manufacturer-approved tires or find themselves riding uninsured.”

Also known as “sealed engines”, this regulation would also limit who can service the bike and who has access to the kind of electronic diagnostic equipment and coding to the bike’s ECU that modern machines need for effective servicing.

Pressure groups like MAG and FEMA have been pushing to have independent garages included, not just manufacturers’ dealers, in an attempt to cut costs for riders and save jobs. But because British bike garages don’t need to be registered (unlike, for example, in Holland) they have run into complex security concerns about who, exactly, has electronic access to your bike’s brain, and its ignition and alarms.

Car makers have solved the problem by splitting electronic information into Levels One and Two with the second, the sensitive stuff, only accessible by mechanics who register their details. Bikes could go the same way.

2)   “Type Approval” - compulsory ABS, combined brakes, “Automatic Headlight On”, running lights.

Changes to “type approval” regulations will set new rules on which bikes can be registered by manufacturers as road-legal machines.

Bikes built after 2001 already have headlights which can’t be turned off. This, though, is only thanks to a voluntary agreement by European manufacturers, it’s not formal. Now that cheap Chinese bikes are coming into the market in numbers without this function (which would add manufacturing costs), European bike-makers have suddenly decided it’s high time this was made compulsory and have  successfully lobbied the EU to include it in the proposals.

Meanwhile MEPs have made clear that they regard ABS as a life-saver and want to see it made compulsory too on all bikes above 125cc. Oddly, they suggest this would help most in saving lives of young riders, before accepting they are most likely to buy smaller, cheaper bikes which won’t need to have it. That’s politics for you. They feel the same way about combined brakes and daytime running lights.

Enduro and off-road bikes are included in the type approval regulations and will not be exempt from this rule unless they are specifically built for off-road or competition use. It will be left up to manufacturers (who, with one eye on type approval needed for road-going sales, lobbied hard against off-road style bikes being exempted from compulsory ABS) to decide whether to fit an “off-switch”.

3)   New categories of motorcycle

The new laws will “simplify” (stop laughing at the back) the designation of solo bikes into three categories, A1, A2 and A3 (low, medium and high powered). This will link with ongoing changes to the European Driving License Directive, adding new compulsory tests and/or training as riders try to move up the categories.

MAG accepts the need for change, agreeing that inexperienced riders should not be climbing aboard 190bhp bikes, but it feels the proposed approach is wrong. Elaine Hardy of Right To Ride highlights another danger: “Let’s say you’ve bought a category A2 bike, and the new anti-tampering legislation comes in. You want to move up to A3, so can you derestrict your bike or tune it up? No. You have to buy a new bike, and you’d also have to undergo fresh testing and possibly training too.”

4)   Emissions

Bikes will be bought into line with cars for emissions testing. Chris Hodder is from the BMF and also a director of FEMA: “We support this. It’s an unfortunate fact that on one level bikes do pollute more than cars, in terms of local pollution when you take CO2 out of the equation - you get more nitrous oxide out of a bike, for example - and we run into this problem every time we talk to local authorities about new bike parking and so on. It’s going to happen so we may as well accept it, and do it well, to protect biking in future.”

5)   Power limits

It’s not all bad news. The notorious 100bhp limit on bikes in France has led to scares about that law spreading across the EU but after sponsored research in Holland and Sweden, FEMA managed to prove that maximum power can’t be reliably linked to road deaths, and so France is being forced to remove its limit to fall in with EU law.

“It’s an example of what we can do,” says FEMA’s Aline Delhaye, “but we can’t keep doing it without support. There are 35 million riders across Europe, but we’re not exploiting that to our advantage.”

6)   “Day-Glo” clothing

This isn’t part of the proposed EU legislation, but domestic proposals in France to force riders to wear fully-sleeved luminous jackets are gathering pace. The Republic of Ireland is also said to be interested. Fighting these developments will be a key MAG campaign in 2011/12.

Aline Delhaye again: “If they lose this one in France, I have no doubt it will spread as other countries are persuaded to adopt it. That’s why the French riders are calling for help and support.”

The manufacturers have the money and the muscle - what are they doing?

Ah yes. Dark waters, these.

Europe’s bike-makers have been treading a careful line in Brussels over the proposals, fighting to change some elements and flagging the danger of cheap far eastern imports ignoring the regulations.

Some of the proposals could lead to greater servicing income for manufacturers, and stave off some competition for sales, which has in turn led some campaigners to suggest the industry is supporting those elements which will make it money in the short term.

One campaigner said: “It’s jam today. Some parts of the industry have only now woken up to the danger that these proposals will drive people away from biking so any extra profit in the short term will be lost in time. It’s been incredibly short-sighted.”

The industry’s corner is fought by the powerful Association des Constructeurs Européens de Motocycles (ACEM), which represents the Japanese and American manufacturers as well as the European factories. Its General Secretary, Jacques Compagne, rejects accusations that the bike-makers have failed to see the big picture.

"We share many concerns with the riders. I don't believe we're in opposition" he said. "We see these regulations in three ways: some are positive, such as those which create a level playing field for sales of machines; some are necessary and we'll cope with them, such as those around emissions; and some we have deep concerns about, such as the completely unrealistic timeframe."

So it’s a done deal?

It looks tough, especially when you consider that part of the controversial Lisburn Treaty which deals with “delegated acts” - it allows the European Commission to come back and add further elements with far less oversight from the European Parliament whenever it likes.

Trevor Baird again. “There’s no point in trying to stop this outright. It would take a very brave MEP to stand up and vote against something which has been sold to them as saving riders’ lives, but we can fight to amend it.”

However, there is a potential knight in shining armour out there and, in a break with tradition for motorcyclists, it’s the British Government.

Paul Turner of MAG: “It’s up to national governments to interrupt EU legislation at home - that’s what the government is doing now around the riding test for example. Ministers can still have a huge impact on this.”

MP John Woodcock agrees: “It is right to pursue appropriate measures to increase motorcycle safety but we must be sure they will have a genuine impact and not just drive riders off the road.

"Lawmakers at home and in Europe are often seen to be hostile to motorcyclists, but we must not forget the positive impact that motorbikes, scooters and mopeds can have reducing emissions and congestion.

"We should only accept measures that genuinely increase safety and consider phasing changes to enable the UK industry to adapt and keep creating jobs."

The BMF’s Chris Hodder says now is the time for riders to act. “One of the most important things is even if all this goes through, it still needs to be signed off by EU countries’ Transport Ministers. That means people should be lobbying their MPs and MEPs now, and joining riders’ groups which fight on their behalf and fund FEMA in Brussels.”

Aline Delhaye says this is no time to lose hope. “This is not over. We have shown we can change these proposals and we have time to keep doing that. UK Ministers, and their counterparts across the EU, need to understand what’s at stake. We’ll continue to work towards that but we can only succeed with the support of riders out there. We need that help now.”