Recital (1)

In 2017, the informal Transport Council in Malta agreed that the persistently high numbers of traffic fatalities and serious road traffic injuries constitute a major societal problem, and set a target of halving the number of serious injuries in the Union by 2030. The Valletta Declaration on Road Safety adopted by the Ministers of Transport of the Member States of the Union on 29 March 2017 called upon the Commission to prepare a strengthened Union road safety policy and legal framework for the decade starting from 2020 which includes the ambitious long-term goal to move close to zero deaths by 2050, enhancing the protection of road users, in particular vulnerable road users, who are most often the victims of road traffic accidents. The efforts previously undertaken by public authorities resulted in a reduction of road traffic fatalities from 51400 in 2001 to 19800 in 2021. However, those figures fell below the Union target of a 75 % reduction in road traffic fatalities between 2001 and 2020, and the progress made towards halving the number of such fatalities during the first decade later stagnated. The Union is committed to getting as close as possible to zero road traffic accident victims by 2050. The Communication of 9 December 2020 from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions entitled Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy – putting European transport on track for the future (the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy) sets out the Vision Zero strategy related to this goal.