SP(2022)12

Results of vote in Parliament

The European Parliament adopted by 681 votes to 1, with 13 abstentions, a resolution tabled by the Petitions Committee on the safety of truck parking lots in the EU.

The Petitions Committee received Petition No 0549/2021, signed by 22 735 people, which raises concerns about truck parking lots on the EU road network and calls for preventive measures to be taken to reduce the risk and scale of security problems in truck parking areas.

Organised criminal groups are often involved in the cargo thefts and frequently target high-value products, such as electronics, tobacco and pharmaceuticals, causing significant economic losses, which amounted to approximately EUR 52 million between 2017 and 2019.

Deploring the attacks, sometimes with a xenophobic or racist slant, on professional hauliers when they take their compulsory rests in truck parking areas, Parliament called on the Commission to closely monitor the availability of a sufficient number of high-quality, safe and secure lorry parking areas and the proportionate application of penalties by Member States.

The resolution underlined the need for enhanced cooperation to effectively combat this type of crime and called for a more structural exchange of information and operational coordination between Member States' law enforcement authorities with the support of Europol. Member States were invited to systematically report offences to Europol and the Commission to strengthen Europol's capacities in this area by increasing its resources and staff.

The Commission and the Member States are invited to:

- take steps to establish police cooperation involving the competent authorities of all Member States to prevent, detect and investigate criminal offences on the roads and in parking areas;

- include targets and approaches for increasing the number of safe and secure truck parking areas in the final partnership agreements on European structural and investment funds ;

- accelerate work on the establishment of the Commission's expert group on road infrastructure safety, as well as the establishment of the High-Level Group on Road Safety;

- work together to improve the quality of services and safety in truck parking areas, while ensuring that independent audits based on common EU standards are carried out by third parties in all secure truck parking areas to ensure that the infrastructure meets EU standards;

- promote existing in-vehicle safety systems and any kind of intelligent warning tool, and their connection with the police and emergency services;

- propose concrete measures for the protection of victims of crimes committed in unprotected truck parking areas, such as access to medical assistance, legal advice, interpreters, etc;

Parliament stressed that EU standards detailing the level of service and safety of secure and safe truck parking areas and the procedures for certification of such parking areas should be made compulsory to ensure and provide a consistent definition of secure truck parking areas and a coherent legislative framework.

T9-0480/2021

B9-0552/2021