MEPs voting to improve road safety in the European Union have backed a package of road safety measures which, if passed, would have implications for farm vehicles in the UK.

The measures, set out by the European Commission, form part of the Resolution on Road Safety 2011-20, which marks a bid to slash the number of injuries and deaths on Europe's road by the end of the current decade.

However, farming industry leaders have balked at proposals to bring road safety legislation on farm vehicles into line with that covering other sectors. The NFU has opposed introducing MOT-style tests for tractors and other farm vehicles, which EU legislators are seeking to introduce as part of their efforts to harmonise transport safety rules across the bloc.   

Parliamentarians voted to amend the Commission's initial proposals, but the NFU wants legislators to go further and exempt agricultural vehicles from the new measures. MEPs suggested trailers weighing under two tonnes could be exempted from testing and that only tractors used 'mainly' on public roads should be subject to the new controls, whereas the Commission had initially sought to introduce testing for all tractors with a design speed greater than 40kmph and all trailers above 750kg.

NFU advisor Ben Ellis commented, "We are pleased to see the European Parliament has made some good amendments to the original proposal, but more must be done before we are satisfied." He added, "We still believe the regulations would be unnecessarily onerous, costly and based on little hard evidence to show that mandatory tests would improve road safety."

However, the NFU has come under fire for lobbying to weaken health and safety regulations. Environment writer George Monbiot lambasted the union as "selfish, grasping and antisocial" and suggested people would "Remember [its lobbying work], next time someone is killed because a tractor's brakes fail." Despite the efforts of health and safety regulators and voluntary industry initiatives, farming remains the UK's most dangerous industry; seven members of the public died on farms last year.

Before the road safety rules are fully passed the European Parliament must agree on a joint position with member states' transport ministers.