After years of deadlock, plans to enforce road safety offences across the European Union have been agreed by Transport Ministers. It is one of the last pieces in a Europe-wide jigsaw of road safety measures.

It is a remarkable gap in EU law, despite the internal market and half a century of integration: Europeans who speed, or burn red lights can dodge penalties if the offense occurs outside the member state where their vehicle is registered. No mechanism exists to force, say, British drivers to pay any tickets slapped on them by French police, so they mostly go unpunished once they return home. But that, at last, is about to change. On December 2, EU Transport Ministers tentatively agreed in Brussels an EU-wide system for enforcing penalties on drivers, wherever their car is registered, ending a two-year deadlock over the plans.

And the rules – in a European Commission draft directive – would urge cross-border enforcement agencies to fight four "big killers": speeding, ignoring red lights, failure to wear a seatbelt and drink-driving, the main reasons of 75% of the 35,000 deaths on EU roads every year. Member states have added five new offences to this list: driving under the influence of drugs, illegal use of the emergency lane, talking on a hand-held mobile phone while driving, violating safe stopping distances, and respect rules on the use of crash-helmets.

The proposals were first unveiled by the Commission in March 2008, and France had hoped to have the measure adopted during its EU presidency in the second half of that year. But until now there has been a deadlock on the legal base for the measures, with many member states concerned that if it was agreed as part of transport policy, it would open the door to harmonization of traffic law. Belgium, resolved the issue at the end of its EU rotating presidency by proposing that the directive should be drafted under the ‘police co-operation' section of the EU's rule-book. There are still complications, as Denmark, the UK and Ireland have opt-outs in this area, although they are expected to choose to opt in to the law.

EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas says foreign drivers make up around 5% of the traffic on the average road, but commit 15% of speeding offences – thus making them three times more to commit a traffic offense than a resident driver, since they could escape penalties upon returning to their home country. In countries where transit and tourism are high, like France, speeding offences committed by non-residents can reach 25% of the total number of offences and go up to 40–50% during very busy periods of the year.

The measures would give special powers to police that would allow them to prosecute the errant drivers. It would also establish a bloc-wide database – the European Vehicle and Driving License Information System - containing details of the vehicle registration.

Once the owner's name and address are known, an offence notification will be issued. It will be for the national authorities where the offence was committed to decide on the follow up for the traffic offence. The demand for payment will be written in the language of the country where the car involved is registered. If the culprit fails to pay up, then the government of the country in which they live will be obliged to take over the case, providing the fine is for €70, or more.

However, the new legislation will not standardize either the nature of the offence or the penalties, which will continue to remain with the national authorities (and parking offences are not included in the bill). And the proposal only deals with financial penalties; penalty points linked with a driving licence and withdrawing of a driving licence are not covered. Nor will the law give foreign police any tools to enforce punishments, although existing treaties and bilateral agreements may offer more scope to bring offenders to book.

And there is then a two-year period for member states to implement the legislation before it comes into force, possibly by 2013. Before that, the European Parliament needs to vote on the measures, and the Greens have already indicated that they think the proposals are too weak, with German MEP Michael Cramer noting that in Germany, the vehicle owner can still refuse to provide information about the responsible driver and thus effectively dodge punishment.

But it is, nonetheless, a key step in the EU’s efforts to make roads safer. Although the number of fatalities on the roads of the EU has fallen by 35% between 2001 and 2009, the target of halving road victims 50% by the end of 2010 has not been met. For the next decade, and the next EU road safety program, the Commission wants a further halving of road deaths. This measure will undoubtedly contribute to the figures.

As the ministers agreed the deal, Kallas hailed their significance. “Freedom of movement is a core right for Europe citizens. It must be protected. But it never included a freedom to run red lights or speed on Europe's roads,” he said. “Many people seem to think that when they go abroad the rules no longer apply to them. My message is that they do and now we are going to apply them."