An amendment to the EU Motor Insurance Directive (MID) appears to lift the threat hanging over motorsport in Europe.
In May last year, the European Commission published proposals that would require all motor vehicles, including those on private land such as race tracks, to have third-party motor insurance.
The move placed all European motorsport in jeopardy, including Formula One, the specialist insurance market for EU motorsport having advised that no insurance meeting the compulsory demands would ever be available so participating in motorsport would be illegal.
"The proposals are potentially catastrophic,'" warned Motor Sport Association (MSA) chairman David Richards at the time. "If this goes through it will have a devastating effect on motor racing in Britain.
"There are 40,000 jobs involved in the industry here and the impact on jobs would be ruinously damaging," he added. "We thought common sense would prevail, but it hasn't. It's bonkers... they are even talking about applying penalty points for tractor drivers on private land!
"The government is committed to fighting this tooth and nail," he continued. "Chris Grayling, the Transport Minister, has given us every assurance on that front. He says he will put a stop to it in Britain post-Brexit, but what about the rest of Europe?"
Today, the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA) reveals that the EU Parliament's IMCO Committee has voted to adopt amendments, supported by MIA, which would exclude motorsport from compulsory motor insurance as previously proposed in the EU Motor Insurance Directive.
The decision is seen as a first, but important, step in making sure motorsport can continue across the EU.
Since 2016, the MIA, the global trade association for motorsport and high-performance engineering has led the fight to ensure the EU Directive excluded motorsport so protecting tens of thousands of jobs and motorsport businesses across the EU. It motivated thousands of EU business leaders to take action and it seems the motorsport community has succeeded in having its voice heard, resulting in today's positive IMCO vote result.
The revised text, as adopted by the EU Parliament IMCO Committee, means that:
Only vehicles used in traffic as a means of transport would need to be covered by Third Party Liability (TPL) insurance.
'Dual-use' vehicles used both in-traffic and out-of-traffic (i.e. 90% of 'motorsport' vehicles) only need insurance cover for use 'in traffic', but not for motorsport activities.
Vehicles intended exclusively for motorsport, and vehicles used exclusively in a non-traffic situation, would be excluded from the scope of the MID.
These amendments will now be voted on by the full EU Parliament on 13th February following which they need to be approved by the EU's Council of EU Ministers at a future date, yet to be set.
"This great news is welcome but just the first stage of our long battle to get motorsport out of the clutches of the EU's VNUK-related insurance issue," said Chris Aylett, MIA's CEO. "We are grateful to IMCO Committee members for their amendments; they demonstrate commitment to avoid destroying the valuable EU motorsport industry and the employment it creates. We hope these changes will be approved by both Parliament and the Council of Ministers and will continue to press our case with them.
"The MIA must not rest," he added, "we've 'got our car onto the grid' but no race is won on the first lap, plenty of hard work lies ahead to bring home victory which will mean future security for EU motorsport."
sign in