eSafety Compendium

3.10 The Second eSafety High LevelMeeting with Member States,Brussels, 18 October 20053.10.1 IntroductionThe Commission organised the 2nd High-Level Meeting with the Member States on 18October 2005. The meeting was attended by over 60 persons representing 21 MemberStates, Norway, industry associations, the eSafety Forum Working Groups and theEuropean Commission. The goal of the meeting was to discuss progress and obtainfurther commitment from the Member States on the road map plan agreed by theCommission and the industry on the priority topic, the pan-European in vehicleemergency call, eCall.Furthermore, the results achieved on three of the eSafety Working Groups(Implementation Road Maps, Human Machine Interaction and Real Time Travel andTraffic Information) as well as the i2010 information society strategy were presented.The participants of this 2nd eSafety High Level meeting, discussed the Commission’s 2ndCommunication on eSafety and in particular recommendations to the Member States.Participants also received progress reports on the eCall initiative the ImplementationRoad Map and the User Outreach Working Groups.3.10.2 General ConclusionsRoad SafetyAn introductory point made at the meeting was that road safety was to be regarded as anutmost priority for improving the quality of life of citizens. A great achievement wouldbe to have the following EU presidency (Austria) to include it as a priority.eSafetyeSafety is a crucially important element in the general framework of improving road andvehicle safety in Europe. A public-private partnership approach is the most effective wayfor achieving eSafety goals. The Commission intends to avoid unnecessary regulation andto proceed with voluntary measures and negotiated agreements.There was overall satisfaction with the progress achieved in the eSafety Forum and itsWorking Groups. Chairs and members of the Working Groups were congratulated fortheir work. However, in order to accelerate the take-up of in-vehicle systems and servicesgreater emphasis needed to be on standardisation, harmonisation, and open in-vehicleplatforms.Page 175 of 490