NEW drivers and professional commercial hauliers driving in the European Union (EU) should be banned from drinking any alcohol before driving, a new European Parliament report has recommended.

Following up the European Commission’s review of the EU road safety action plan, a parliament transport committee report by Swedish social democrat MEP Ewa Hedkvist Petersen has said: ‘There should be a EU-wide zero alcohol limit for these drivers.’

She said it was one measure needed to reduce the 40,000 recorded annual EU road fatalities, adding: ‘Much more still needs to be done if we are to achieve the EU’s objective of halving the number of fatal accidents by 2010.’