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The European Parliament’s IMCO committee has decided that there should be no compulsory third party liability insurance required for lower powered pedelecs and e-bikes.
The Motor Insurance Directive (MID) obliges all motor vehicles in the EU to be covered by compulsory third party insurance. In May 2018, the European Commission proposed that even low-powered e-bikes would fall under the MID.
European Parliament rapporteur MEP Charanzová has reportedly decided that this was a ‘disproportionate measure’ for an e-bike. This was supported by shadow rapporteurs MEPs Pospisil, Dalton and Durand.
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.”
The European Parliament will need to vote on this in plenary for it to become the final position to take into negotiations with the European Council. The European Council still need to come to their conclusions on the issue, before institutional dialogues can begin.
