European e-bikers are breathing a sigh of relief today as the European Parliament voted against proposed new laws which would have made third party liability insurance compulsory.
We reported on this last week, with the overwhelming majority of eBikeTips and road.cc readers saying that the move would have a negative impact and e-bikes shouldn't be subjected to the same rules as motor vehicles. The EU agreed, with the European Parliament rapporteur MEP Charanzová deciding that it would be a "disproportionate measure for an electric bicycle". This was supported by shadow rapporteurs MEPs Pospíšil, Dalton and Durand, and opposed by shadow rapporteur MEP Cofferati.
The European Cyclists’ Federation strongly lobbied against the intentions of the European Commission with support from the bike industry, saying that the proposal would "create a barrier to the growth of the pedelec bicycle by imposing such a disproportionate mandatory insurance". They also drafted a letter for members of the public to send to their MEP to make sure they opposed the proposed measures too. The ECF Advocacy Director Adam Bodor said: “This is a sensible decision by the European Parliament IMCO committee. We are happy that they agreed with ECF that there is no need to define e-bikes as motor vehicle and require compulsory third party liability insurance. We ask Member States to follow the lead of the Rapporteur Charanzová and the parliament to exclude pedelecs from this Directive.”