The EU and the US published a joint statement on a framework for trade on 21 August¹. The framework of policy measures that both sides commit to is to resolve “trade imbalances”.
Key term number 8 states that:
“
With respect to automobiles, the United States and the European Union intend to accept and provide mutual recognition to each other’s standards.”
This is a complete reversal of a promise made by the Commission to a group of concerned civil society NGOs and organisations.
Fabian Küster,
Director of Advocacy and EU Affairs at ECF, says;
“
This framework agreement is a betrayal of the EU’s commitment to road safety. By accepting mutual recognition of vehicle standards with the United States, the European Commission is opening the door to vehicles that do not meet our hard-won safety regulations. We call on the Commission to retract this dangerous clause and uphold its promise to protect EU citizens.”
EU-EU equivalency exposes EU citizens to higher road risks
Recognising US vehicle standards for vehicles entering the EU single market would have a severe deleterious effect on the safety of cyclists and pedestrians, and all other road users. It would completely undermine the recently updated General Safety Regulations.
The EU GSR updated the Pedestrian Protection Regulations which was improved to take into account cyclist passive safety requirements; US vehicles require no conformity to the “Pedestrian Protection Regulations. There are also many other EU vehicle requirements that are necessary for a vehicle to be sold into the EU single market that are either non-existent or considerably weaker in the US vehicle self-certification system.
The most popular vehicles in the US market are very large “pick-up” truck-style vehicles such as the Ford F150 that are not manufactured in the EU and are rare on EU roads. These very large and heavy vehicles have very high bonnets with poor direct vision and limited safety assistance devices. They have been shown to be more dangerous to cyclists and pedestrians than other vehicles². Mutual recognition could open the floodgate to these massive and dangerous vehicles.
EU vehicle safety has improved considerably due to the good work of the European institutions and the update of the vehicle safety type approval legislation, the General Safety Regulations. Road fatalities have fallen by 21% since 2010³. The US by contrast has seen road fatalities increase by around 30% since 2010, with pedestrian vehicle crash deaths increase by around 80% and cyclist fatalities by around 50%, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety⁴. These figures have now reached their highest levels in 40 years.
EU Commission reneges on promise to NGOs
A number of civil society NGOs and organisations (including ECF) wrote to the Commission⁵ in July urging it not to hand over sovereignty of vehicle safety requirements to the US.
The Commission
replied:
“
…let me assure you that neither EU safety and environmental performance standards nor citizens’ EU Treaty guaranteed rights and values are up for negotiation.”
The Commission went on to say that discussions would be limited to:
“
…the administrative easing of conformity assessment procedures (such as partial recognition of test results in areas where safety and emission requirements are identical).”
This is very different from the finalised Framework text intending to “accept and provide mutual recognition” between the US and EU.
If this “Framework” is followed through and implemented, and US vehicle standards are recognised with regards to EU type approval it will have a huge impact on the safety standard of the vehicle fleet in the EU.
We therefore call on the EU to retract term number 8 of the Framework and re-negotiate a text that respects the safety of the citizens that it represents.
Notes:
1:
https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/news/joint-statement-united-states-european-union-framework-agreement-reciprocal-fair-and-balanced-trade-2025-08-21_en
2:
https://www.vias.be/fr/newsroom/des-voitures-plus-lourdes-plus-hautes-et-plus-puissantes-pour-une-securite-routiere-a-deux-vitesses-/
3:
https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/european-road-safety-observatory/statistics-and-analysis-archive/annual-accident-report_en and
https://road-safety.transport.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2021-07/03-pedestrians_en.pdf
4:
https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2024-02/2024%20NRSS%20Progress%20Report.pdf and
https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/pedestrians with breakdown here
https://data.bikeleague.org/new-fatality-data-shows-increase-in-bicyclist-deaths-divergence-in-states-with-most-bicyclist-deaths/
5.
https://www.ecf.com/en/news/ecf-signs-letter-to-commission-reject-us-vehicles-/
For more information, please contact Ceri Woolsgrove, Senior Policy Officer:
[email protected]
