Report on the application by the Member States of Directive 2000/30/EC on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Community

In the interest of road safety, environmental protection and fair competition, European legislation provides for a set of measures to ensure that commercial vehicles on European roads are in appropriate technical condition. These include:
- rules on admission to the occupation, which require transport operators to have sufficient financial capacity to ensure the proper maintenance of vehicles (Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009);
- periodic roadworthiness tests of vehicles, to be carried out in Member States for vehicles registered on their territory, with a minimum frequency laid down at European level (Directive 2009/40/EC);
- technical roadside inspections ensuring that commercial vehicles are only used if they are maintained such as to ensure a high level of technical roadworthiness (Directive 2000/30/EC).

Under Directive 2000/30/EC, commercial vehicles, their trailers and semi-trailers circulating on the territories of the Member States are subject to technical roadside inspections of their roadworthiness, in order to improve road safety and protect the environment. Article 6 of the Directive sets out that every two years Member States should provide the Commission with data collected for the previous two years relating to:
- the number of commercial vehicles checked, grouped into seven vehicle categories and further grouped by the country of registration;
- the items checked as per the Directive; and
- the deficiencies discovered.

The Directive lists nine different points that can be subject to a technical roadside inspection. If any of the items checked do not comply with the relevant road safety requirements, the use of the vehicle may be prohibited. Every deficiency of the inspected vehicle must be mentioned in the inspection report to be given to the vehicle’s driver. The Directive requires the Commission to submit a report to the Council and the European Parliament on the application of the Directive, based on the data received from the Member States, together with a summary of the results obtained.

In 2014 the European Parliament and the Council revised the rules and procedures for the technical roadside inspection of commercial vehicles. On 3 April 2014 Directive 2014/47/EU was adopted, and must be applied by the Member States from 20 May 2018. The new Directive introduces inter alia the requirement that the total number of initial roadside inspections in the EU will have to correspond to at least 5% of the total number of these vehicles registered in the Member States. The first reporting obligation when this target will have to be taken into account will be due by 31 March 2021 for the years 2019-2020.

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