At the sitting held on 8 May, the Committee on Transportation and Communications discussed in principle the Bill on Road Traffic Safety, submitted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

The representatives of the Ministries of Infrastructure and the Interior shortly outlined the Bill for the Committee members. The Bill on Road Traffic Safety was being prepared for more than 6 years and is the result of the efforts of an inter-departmental working group comprising representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Ministry of the Interior and the professors of the Faculty of Transportation. The Bill regulates the road safety matter in a modern way adjusted to European standards, it introduces a Road Safety Agency, and the Government of the Republic of Serbia is obliged to draft a five-year National Road Safety Strategy. It also introduces penalty points, the responsibility of participants in traffic is to be determined by a permanent video record, it institutes a probationary driver’s license, prohibits the use of the telephone when driving. Fines range from 5,000 to 50,000 RSD, and serious violations envisage a jail sentence. The fines issued for traffic violations can be paid at a bank of the post office and the expected effect of this measure is the decrease of corruption in the police force.

Following a long discussion in which the deputies voiced arguments for and against the specific provisions of the Bill, the Committee accepted the on Road Traffic Safety in principle, by a majority of votes.

The sitting was chaired by the Committee Chairman, Velimir Ilic.