Mr Sabutis urges to allow Member States to decide on the frequency of roadworthiness testing for older cars

At the meeting of the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy (TTE) Council of the European Union (EU) in Luxembourg, Minister of Transport and Communications Eugenijus Sabutis presented Lithuania’s position concerning the revision of the roadworthiness package proposed by the European Commission. This proposal aims to tighten technical condition requirements for vehicles in all EU countries, including the obligation to inspect older cars annually. The Minister expressed his disapproval of such changes, stressing that they would be excessive and would place an unreasonable burden on vehicle owners in Lithuania.

Lithuania is most opposed to the proposal to introduce mandatory annual roadworthiness testing for cars older than 10 years. According to the Minister, this proposal raises serious doubts and requires further assessment, as there is no objective data to justify the need for more frequent testing. According to him, the average age of cars in Lithuania is the highest across Europe, so it is necessary to take into account the specific characteristics of individual countries, and he urged that flexibility be left to the countries themselves.

“Such an obligation would place a significant administrative burden on both vehicle owners and roadworthiness testing centres. Currently, more than 80% of vehicles in Lithuania are older than 10 years, so annual inspections would affect about 1.5 million people, and the additional administrative costs would exceed EUR 38 million over two years,” Mr Sabutis argued in the Council.

Minister Sabutis emphasised that it is necessary to find a balance between safety requirements, administrative burden and costs for vehicle owners. In addition, Lithuania has doubts about the emission testing of light commercial vehicles (category N1) only one year after their first registration and proposes that this procedure be carried out after two years. Lithuania also holds a position that a temporary roadworthiness test done in another Member State should be valid for the period set by the legislation of that Member State, rather than just for six months like the Commission currently suggests.

The Minister called on other EU Member States to critically assess the EC’s proposals in the upcoming negotiations, analyse the possible impacts and submit constructive proposals, taking into account their national context. 

Mr Sabutis emphasised to EU transport ministers that Lithuania supports a balanced approach to transport regulation in order to ensure a balance between safety, environmental protection and cost-efficiency. Lithuania supports stricter roadside inspections of vehicles and appreciates efforts to expand data exchange between Member States to facilitate the monitoring of changes in technical condition and prevent fraud with odometer readings. In addition, Lithuania welcomes the objective of digitising vehicle registration and roadworthiness documents, which would make them easier to use when travelling.

Lithuania welcomes this package in principle. This EU Council is only holding an initial exchange of views at political level on this package, and the proposals will be further discussed at expert level in working groups.

The roadworthiness package presented by the EC at the end of April aims to improve road safety and environmental protection by introducing stricter roadworthiness testing and additional inspections. The EC announced that the proposed changes are related to the goal set out in the EU road safety policy framework of having close to zero deaths and serious injuries on Community roads by 2050 and to reducing deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2030.