FEMA
FEMA reports that the parliamentary committee (IMCO) in charge of the type approval regulation for motorcycles met for the last time as planned on Tuesday 30th August to discuss the amendments that have been submitted. There are now in excess of 300 amendments (click here for the full list). The proposals will be voted on in October, but no further discussions on motorcycle type approval are scheduled between now & then. We already know that ABS will be mandatory (See previous MAG post here) but the final outcome will, as is so often the case in the EU – be a compromise position of some sort which is almost certain to include some aspects that will be damaging to our freedoms as we now know them.
You can read the full story on the FEMA web site here;
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland based Right to Ride have posted a very comprehensive piece on the outcomes of Tuesday’s IMCO meeting on their web site which you can read here;
http://www.righttoride.eu/?p=7525
Update: September 5th 2011. The following snippet comes via MAG UK.
Video of the IMCO meeting, as well as official papers describing the Commissions proposals and the 300+ suggested amendments, can be found on the EU website (the video shows discussion about the Type Approval Regulations from 15:54:30 to 16:26:00): http://www.europarl.europa.eu/wps-europarl-internet/frd/vod/player?eventCode=20110830-1500-COMMITTEE-IMCO&language=EN&byLeftMenu=researchcommittee&category=COMMITTEE&format=wmv#anchor1
With thanks to: Nich Brown, General Secretary, MAG UK. For further information, see this MAG UK Facebook post.