Around 80 people from across Europe, including policy makers, law enforcement authorities, NGOs, football clubs and civil society stakeholders joined forces on 3 December 2010 in Brussels to debate how best to combat the scourge of drink-driving in Europe, and also to reaffirm support for the European Road Safety Charter.

Organised by the Belgian Road Safety Institute and The Brewers of Europe, the multi-stakeholder conference coincided with discussions within the Council on the new EU policy orientations for 2011-2020 on Road Safety, i.e. halving road deaths, and the start of the UN decade for Road Safety.

“The numbers of road fatalities remain unacceptably high in the EU,” said Maria Cristina Marolda, road safety policy officer representing the European Commission’s DG MOVE. “Fatalities in the EU from road traffic accidents have reduced substantially over the last 10 years to around 35,000 today, but this is still too high and we need to do more to reduce this,” she said, citing “shared responsibility amongst European authorities, national governments, regional and local authorities, private companies, road operators, and actors in civil society, indeed everybody” in having a role to play.

Executive Director of the Belgian Road Safety Institute, Martin Van Houtte, stressed, “hundreds of lives could be saved if all drivers abstained from drinking before driving. The BOB [designated driver] campaign and police controls attached to it represent the best method to pass the message.” Mr Van Houtte went on to talk about how the partnership approach towards combating drink-driving in Belgium had made a contribution “in reducing the number of fatalities on Belgium’s roads by 36% since 2001.” The BOB concept, supported by the Belgian Brewers and now entering its 16th year, has been copied and rolled out across 15 other European countries.

The president of The Brewers of Europe, Alberto da Ponte, noted the many concrete interventions at the conference, in particular those of the Spanish transport ministry, the Polish motor transport institute, Danish football club FC Midtjylland, and other stakeholders (mentioned above). He said, “if you want to make progress in combating drink-driving and reducing the numbers of fatalities, the multistakeholder approach as we’ve seen today is the benchmark.” Da Ponte further opined, “Europe’s brewers will continue to partner and support responsible campaigns. We have already for well over a decade been partnering with a range of stakeholders from across European society, and this is partly evidenced in our public commitments to the EU’s alcohol and health forum and the European Road Safety Charter.” He cited the above examples of recent anti-drink-driving campaigns Europe’s brewers had supported in Spain, Poland and Denmark, along with Italy and Belgium, all of which he said were “practises that could be adapted and replicated across other countries.”

“Actions and partnerships need to sustainably deliver results,” said Jeannot Mersch, President of the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims (FEVR). “Besides offering support and help to road traffic victims, FEVR continues to campaign for a reduction of the danger on the roads during the next decade, leading therefore we hope to a reduction in the number of broken lives - in our countries, throughout Europe and in the whole world,” he said.

Fittingly, the conference included a signing of the European Road Safety Charter (ERSC) by The Brewers of Europe, the Italian brewers association Assobirra, the European Transport Training Organisation, Zone de Police Bouraine, the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims, Politiezone West-Limburg, and FC Midtjylland. The ERSC is an instrument that offers European-wide recognition and visibility to stakeholders that have engaged in road safety actions.

You can find the presentations of the speakers, pictures and more information on the conference on the following website:

http://www.dontdrinkdrive.eu