Category: EFA

At the recent CNPA Congress held in Lyon, France I was very pleased to sign a new EFA Charter for Road Safety Education. The idea for this charter was first raised at the EFA delegates meeting in October 2016 – held in Copenhagen, Denmark by Patrice Bessone, Président, CNPA – Éducation Routière (France). His ideas were welcomed by delegates and the final charter was agreed at the EFA meeting held in Prague, Czech Republic in April 2017. Patrice kindly invited me to come to Lyon to formally sign the charter.

The CNPA Congress is a large event with around a thousand delegates attending. I last attended THE CNPA event at Reims in 2015.

My duties as President of the European Driving Schools Association (EFA) often brings me into contact with colleagues across Europe who have different approaches to teaching learners how to drive, and different rules and regulations surrounding testing. Many are interesting, some are surprising… others, well, really shock! But more of that later…

EFA held a delegates Meeting in the Czech Republic in April most of the organisations twenty-three member countries were represented. In addition, the President of CIECA also attended.

Several speakers addressed the meeting including Stanislav Dvořák Director of the Czech Driver Affairs Department and Roman Budský who discussed the Statistical Analysis of Selected factors on the Rate of Accidents.

The MSA and Scotland proved excellent hosts for the 2015 EFA Congress, which ran from October 8-9 at the Westerwood Hotel, near Glasgow. Delegates were drawn from all across Europe, with over 20 nations represented to hear presentations and addresses on a number of key pan-European road safety and driver training/ testing issues.

It was my intention to take a break from Blogging during July and August but I did not intend to start the break until I had posted this entry. Unfortunately I clicked the save draft button rather than the publish button so this blog has been languishing in the ether for some time my apologies.

At the start of July I was privilege to accompany Dr. Stefan Ebner, Managing Director of WKO the Austrian association for driving schools and a party of around thirty WKO members on a trip around a number of the offices connected to the EU in Brusells.

“The link between the practical driving test and road safety” was the title of a CIECA (the International Commission for Driver Tastings) Expert Advisory Group (EAG) workshop on 18 June 2015 at the Headquarters of DGT in Madrid, Spain.

I was invited by Patrice Bessone, national president of the Conseil National des Professions de l’Automobile (CNPA) Education Routière – the National Council of Automobile Professions, Traffic Education Section to join him in a round table discussion at the CNPA National Congress held this year in Reims.

The May EFA Delegates meeting was held at the Hotel Zochova chata, Bratislava, Slovakia. And was hosted by Mgr. Jaroslav PREKOP – Chairman of the Slovak Chamber of Driving Schools who started the meeting by welcoming delegates to Slovakia.

The recent CIECA Congress held in Berlin was titled “Personal resources for safe driving” and included a number of well known speakers.

I was in Brussels yesterday, on behalf of the European Driving Schools Association (EFA) attending a very interesting Eco-driving  Workshop. The event was part of an initiative titled “Joining forces to tackle the road transport CO2 challenge” organised by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) represents the 15 Europe-based car, van, truck and bus makers.

ACEA states that “there has been significant progress made in bringing down CO2 emissions from cars, vans, trucks and buses thanks to ongoing innovation efforts by