On the basis
of, 'we're not quite out of the woods yet' to coin a phrase, the news that the
latest step in ensuring that motorsport vehicles are excluded from the scope of
the new EU Motor Insurance Directive (MID) has been passed, is nevertheless most
encouraging.
Never ones to make things simple,
especially when complications add time and cost to their endeavours, the MEPs
in the European Parliament voted yesterday (13th Feb) to approve the amendment
that motorsport vehicles be excluded from the proposed new law. Unfortunately
that's not quite the end of the matter, yet.
However it has paved the way for
the next step in the process for the Internal Market and Consumer Protection
Committee (IMCO) to negotiate these rules with the EU
Council of Ministers to gain their approval before they come into force.
Sadly, this is not a 'rubber stamp' job
as the Council, which consists of an individual Minister from each EU Member
State, could take a different position from that of the MEPs and Parliament and
decide to keep motorsport within the scope of this legislation!
Fortunately there are a number of
specialist bodies including the FIA, Motorsport UK and the Motorsport Industry
Association amongst others throughout Europe working away and lobbying the
relevant ministers and departments on our behalf.
How important is this? Failure to have
motor sport excluded from this legislation would incur huge insurance costs on
individuals and events that would either kill off the sport altogether or set
the sport back to its origins whereby only the rich and privileged could afford
to take part. And that would rule most of us out.
Now we have to wait for the puff of
white smoke from the exalted chambers, or maybe not, smoke is banned these days
and classed as harmful emissions, is it not - we just can't win, can we?
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