Grande-Marlaska presents the Spanish model of safe mobility to the international community

The Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, during his speech at the Fourth Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety

The Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, took part in the Fourth Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, a forum in which he presented the Spanish road safety model, pointing out that "Spain is a Mediterranean country with a way of life that complicates the design of our road safety policies, but we have managed to reduce the mortality rate to 37 deaths per million inhabitants. 

The Fourth Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, the most important international event in this field, is being held in Marrakech from Monday, organised by the Government of Morocco under the auspices of the United Nations and the World Health Organisation with the aim of assessing the progress of the Global Plan 2021-2030 during its first five years and garnering support for the new vision of safe and sustainable mobility. The three previous conferences were held in Russia (2009), Brazil (2015) and Sweden (2020).

Grande-Marlaska was one of the participants in the first plenary session of the conference, in which he explained that Spain understands that road safety policy "must be integrated into policies on mobility, the environment, education, health and occupational risk prevention, among others, which is why we are committed to safe mobility, which is a broader concept and which must also be sustainable, healthy, accessible and efficient".

Among the main characteristics of the Spanish model of safe mobility, the Minister for Home Affairs cited the existence of an institutional organisation that manages it, the Directorate General of Traffic, which has just celebrated its 65th anniversary and which plays a fundamental role in monitoring compliance with traffic laws, "which is the best road safety policy and the most effective way to reduce the number of traffic accident victims".

The minister also stressed the importance of putting traffic accident victims "at the heart of road safety policy, giving them a voice and visibility because they are the critical conscience of society, they brought us the concept of 'road rage' and they are right when they defend the ethical and moral obligation to prevent so much pain and suffering".

Grande-Marlaska also highlighted Spain's commitment to educating school students in values such as sharing public roads, complying with the rules and thinking of others; the continuous training of drivers, and social awareness campaigns, elements which have made it possible to generate "an active and committed civil society without whose help the progress made would not have been possible".

International cooperation

The Minister for Home Affairs concluded his speech with a firm commitment to international cooperation because "the exchange of good practices and experiences should also be important in other regions of the world" when designing road safety policies.

In this regard, Grande-Marlaska highlighted the technical support that the European Union will be providing to this African Observatory to reduce the accident rate on the continent, for which it will allocate more than €20 million, and recalled that "road safety policies are policies of solidarity and respect for each and every one of us".

After the plenary session, Grande-Marlaska took part in a round table discussion which, behind closed doors, brought together the ministers responsible for road safety and the heads of delegation of the countries attending the meeting. In addition, during the conference, the Minister for Home Affairs held bilateral meetings with the mayor of Paris (France), Anne Hidalgo, and with his Moroccan counterpart, Abdelouafi Laftit.

The Minister for Home Affairs headed the Spanish delegation at the Fourth Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, which was made up of the department's Undersecretary, Susana Crisóstomo; the Director General of International Relations and Foreigners, Elena Garzón; the Director General of Traffic, Pere Navarro, and other ministry officials.

Non official translation