75. The secretary of the Working Party on Road Safety (WP.1) reported on the consideration, at the sixty-first session of WP.1 (ECE/TRANS/WP.1/131), of the proposal for amendments to the 1968 Vienna Convention transmitted by WP.29 on the basis of an informal document. WP.29 pointed out that an official proposal (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2011/47) had been transmitted to WP.1 before its March 2011 session. He mentioned that the proposal would continue to be considered at the next session of WP.1 in September 2011. He also reported that an informal group of WP.1 was considering the driver’s assistance concept.

76. The representative of the United Kingdom pointed out that the draft UN Regulation on Advanced Emergency Braking System (AEBS), recently adopted by GRRF, should be considered by WP.1, because it could be inconsistent with the provision of permanent control of the vehicle by the driver and could also affect the driver’s assistance concept. He invited the secretary of WP.1 to transmit the proposal for the driver’s assistance concept for consideration to WP.29 before its adoption by WP.1. The Chair of WP.29 stated that cooperation between the representatives of WP.1 and WP.29 was essential for being well informed about possible inconsistencies and solutions to them.

34. GRE noted that WP.29 at its March 2011 session (see ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1089, paras. 80-81) agreed to transmit ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2011/47 to the Working Party on Road Safety (WP.1) for consideration at their March 2011 session. GRE noted that WP.1 would resume consideration of ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2011/47 in details at its September 2011 session.

41. GRE noted that the Working Party on Road Traffic safety (WP.1) would consider ECE/TRANS/WP.1/2011/4 based on ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2011/47 at its next session on 19-21 March 2012 in Geneva. GRE noted that most of the changes introduced to ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2011/47 in ECE/TRANS/WP.1/2011/4, as shown in GRE-66-16 were editorial.

90. The World Forum noted that the Secretary of the Working Party on Road Safety (WP.1) had informed the secretariat of WP.29 that no new information was available regarding the proposal by WP.29 to eliminate inconsistencies on lighting and lightsignalling devices since the proposal was transmitted following the March 2011 session of WP.29. Moreover, no new information was available on the progress of the work of the virtual group of experts of WP.1 concerning the obligation that “every driver shall at all times be able to control his vehicle” (Articles 8.(5) and 13.(1) of the 1968 Vienna Convention) and on the development of the driver’s assistance concept.

91. It was also noted that a Round Table concerning the “consistency between the 1968 Convention on Road Traffic and other legal instruments” was scheduled for 19 March 2012 with the participation of the WP.29 secretariat. The Round Table programme is available here. The WP.29 secretariat was requested to provide WP.1 representatives with information regarding the functioning of WP.29 and how the decisions are taken for the adoption of UN Regulations and UN Global Technical Regulations as well as on the main provisions of draft UN Regulation on Advanced Emergency Braking Systems (AEBS). The representative of EU stated that from an analysis of the draft UN Regulation, no inconsistency was found with, amongst others, the provisions of the 1968 Vienna Convention.