Brussels,

Security & Safety

MOBILITY & TRANSPORT

EU places a strong emphasis on safety and security in all modes of transport within the European Union. They aim to meet the expectations of travelers by ensuring satisfactory standards across the transportation network.

​Transport Safety in the EU:
  1. Aviation Safety: The EU strives to maintain the highest standards of safety in aviation through organizations like EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency). They promote cost-efficient rules while ensuring passenger safety and free movement within the aviation sector. The EU also maintains a list of banned airlines from EU skies, updated regularly.
  2. Road Safety: Road transport is the most widely used but also a leading cause of accidents. The Commission is active in promoting rules, technical standards, and awareness campaigns to reduce fatalities caused by road accidents.
  3. Maritime Safety: Safety for both passenger and merchant ships is a top priority. The Commission has developed safety policies in response to major shipping accidents since the 1990s.
  4. Rail Safety: European railways are among the safest globally. EU policies aim to maintain high safety standards and harmonize safety requirements across the EU to create a Single European Railway Area.

Transport Security in the EU:
  1. Transport Security Importance: The EU recognizes the importance of transport security as a basic right for travelers and a key concern for transport providers. It covers various aspects, from preventing terrorism to combating vandalism and graffiti.
  2. Terrorism and Security Threats: The Commission acknowledges that transport is a potential target for terrorism. While such events are rare, they can have significant impacts on the entire transport supply chain. Other security threats include crimes on transport operator premises, cargo theft, and piracy.
  3. Coordinated Approach: Since transport is international in nature, the EU works to ensure a coordinated approach to security standards, aligning with international organizations like ICAO (for aviation security) and IMO (for maritime security). They also cooperate with third countries to enhance transport security and exchange best practices.
  4. Role of Technology: The EU acknowledges the role of new technologies in developing high-security systems that can streamline security checks, making travel safer and more efficient.

EU is committed to maintaining the highest standards of safety and security across all modes of transport in the EU, addressing both the concerns of travelers and the challenges posed by various security threats.

Road Safety

EU is taking comprehensive actions to enhance road safety. These actions encompass several areas, including the improvement of road infrastructure with safer designs, promoting safe road use through awareness and enforcement of traffic rules, ensuring vehicle safety with advanced standards and inspections, and enhancing post-impact care for accident victims.

The EU's approach integrates these aspects to systematically reduce road accidents and fatalities, aiming to make European roads safer for all users.

The EU Road Safety Policy covers various aspects, including:
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1. Improving Road Infrastructure: Implementing safer road design and maintenance.  ​
2. Promoting Safe Road Use: Encouraging responsible behavior among road users through education and enforcement of traffic rules.
3. Vehicle Safety: Ensuring high safety standards for vehicles through regulations and technology.
4. Post-impact Care: Enhancing emergency response and care for accident victims.These priorities are part of the EU's broader goal to reduce road fatalities and injuries
5. ​Driving licence

Aviation Safety

The EU air safety policy is designed to maintain a high level of safety in aviation, which is one of the safest and rapidly growing transport modes. This policy aims to ensure passenger safety, promote cost-efficient rules, and facilitate free movement in the civil aviation sector. Due to the increase in air traffic and the number of carriers from the single aviation market, the EU focuses on establishing effective aviation safety standards. These standards include maintaining an updated list of airlines banned from EU skies, ensuring only safe carriers operate within the EU.

Road Safety

​Road transport, the most common form of travel, is a leading cause of accidents. The European Commission actively promotes rules, technical standards, and awareness campaigns to reduce road accident fatalities. For more detailed information and updates on these initiatives, it is recommended to visit the Road Safety website.

Maritime Safety

In maritime transport, safety of both passenger and merchant ships is of paramount importance. EU has developed a in response to several major shipping accidents since the 1990s.

Rail Safety

Europe’s railways are among the safest in the world. EU policies aim to maintain high standards and align safety requirements EU-wide. This is essential if we are to achieve a Single European Railway Area.

Land Transport Security

As of now, there is no specific EU legislation addressing land transport security, except for some overlapping safety and security requirements for dangerous goods. Despite the higher number of deaths in the EU from terrorist attacks on land transport compared to aviation or maritime and the significant cost of cargo theft from road and rail (estimated at €8 billion annually), EU Transport Ministers have not requested legislation for security requirements in road or rail transport.

In 2012, the EU Commission adopted a Staff Working Document on Transport Security, acknowledging the absence of specific EU legislation in this area and suggesting potential areas for EU action. An EU Expert Group for Land Transport Security was established to discuss issues with Member States and stakeholders.

EU identifies two key points in the context of land transport security:
  1. Diversity of Threats and Risks: Unlike aviation security, land transport faces a wide variety of threats and risks, necessitating different approaches. The security needs of land transport can vary significantly depending on factors like the size and age of the network, and the specific security threats in different cities. Therefore, very detailed and prescriptive rules are not desirable for land transport security.
  2. Diverse Security Needs: The security needs of passengers and cargo in land transport are distinct, and the modes of land transport themselves are varied. This diversity means that there is no "one-size fits all" solution for land transport security. Instead, initiatives should be tailored to each sector.

​The EU's approach to land transport security is characterized by a recognition of the diverse and specific nature of threats and requirements in this sector, suggesting a need for tailored, sector-specific solutions rather than broad, prescriptive legislation.
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Cybersecurity in the Transport Sector

The European Commission's publication of the 'Cybersecurity Toolkit' on December 16, 2020, aimed at enhancing cybersecurity and cyber-resilience in the transport sector.

This initiative comes in response to the growing concern over cybersecurity, as evidenced by one in eight European businesses being affected by cyberattacks in 2019. The toolkit is designed to raise awareness and improve cyber-hygiene, specifically focusing on the transport sector and addressing organizations of all sizes and domains within it.

The toolkit provides basic information on four key threats: malware diffusion, denial of service, unauthorized access and theft, and software manipulation. For each threat, it lists good practices for mitigation, relevant to all transport staff regardless of their occupation. Additionally, it offers an advanced level of information, particularly useful for security and cybersecurity professionals in transport organizations. This advanced section is organized by transport mode (air, maritime, and land), offering guidance on identifying, protecting, detecting, and responding to cyber-threats.

Aligned with other European Commission initiatives for enhancing cybersecurity, such as the Directive (EU) 2022/2555 on measures for high cybersecurity levels across the Union and the EU’s Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade, the toolkit is part of a broader effort to strengthen cybersecurity in Europe.

Cybersecurity toolkit