75 newly elected Members of European Parliament (MEPs), or a full 10% of entire house, pledged to support cycling during this parliamentary term 2019 – 2024. This is the key result of the pre-electoral campaign ECF jointly implemented with our members across the EU.

During the last European elections’ campaign, ECF asked MEPs candidates to answer a survey to know more on how they position themselves on cycling policy issues and to sign its “Cycling for All” pledge. Before the elections took place, 475 MEP candidates have pledged to

Which political groups do the 75 MEPs represent?

Looking at their groupings and countries, we can already note that cycling remains a cross-partisan and transnational issue, according to the pretty diverse audience we received. Though Green and S&D MEPs account for more than half of our audience, we welcome the partisan diversity of the signatories – one third of them being liberal or conservative. This shows cycling can play a major role in some of the EU’s trending issues such as climate change mitigation or social inclusiveness.

To name a few well-known personalities amongst our endorsers at the new Parliament:

• Amongst the Greens, Ska Keller (Germany) and Philippe Lamberts (Belgium), Co-Presidents of The Greens/EFA and Members of the Conference of Presidents, as well as Karima Delli (France), Chair of the TRAN Committee;
• Social-Democrat MEP Patrizia Toia (Italy), former Italian Minister who entered the EP in 2004;
• European People’s Party MEP Sirpa Pietikaïnen, former Minister of the Environment of Finland, seating at the EP since 2008.

As well, with a total of 17 EU-Member States represented over the elected signatories, the geographical diversity of our panel is another positive signal; although we ought to recognize the relative high presence of German and Italian MEPs (29 out of 75).

How did the 75 elected MEPs respond to our survey questions?

Before the elections, the now elected MEPs were asked 5 key questions. Answers to the first one, on whether the EU should set an objective to increase the number of trips made by bicycle by 2030, show a very strong endorsement in this direction: we received 76% of favorable answers, including 48 MEPs who think the EU should commit to an increase of at least 50% of the bicycle trips over the next decade.

Considering whether the EU should make Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) mandatory in all new motor vehicles, so that they are as safe as possible for people walking and cycling, results show an inclination in favor of such a regulation: 67% of our panel supports either a limited (i.e. overridable) or a full mandatory (i.e. non-overridable) ISA regulation.

What about EU investments on cycling? One third of the MEPs support increased EU investments during the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2021-2027), to bring them to a minimum of 3% of the EU transport budget (current spending is about 1.5 – 2 %), although another third wants to keep the spending level at minimum 1.5% of the EU transport budget.

On a more positive trend, a large majority of the respondents think the EU should make quality standards and guidelines for all new transport infrastructures across Europe, including for cycling facilities.

Finally, a glimpse on electrically assisted bicycles: our survey shows that 43 MEPs out of 75 think electrically assisted bicycles should be classified as equal to conventional bicycles – as Member States currently treat them – whereas only 2 MEPs think they should be classified as motorised vehicles.

We take these results as a very encouraging signal for the future cycling policy debates at the European Parliament. Last, but not least: if 24 MEPs have indicated being regular cyclists, 46 out of the 75 have declared they would cycle more often if conditions were safer and more convenient. For ECF, it means that cycling is on the right path for being recognized as a fully-fledged means of mobility, albeit great efforts are still needed to improve cycling facilities and infrastructure across the European Union.