Implement the Regional Road Safety Action Plan

ROADMAP PROGRESS

The GARI 2025 indicates continued efforts across the WB6 to implement the Road Safety Action Plan, with an average implementation rate of 55%, aligned with EU road safety legislation and regional cooperation under the Transport Community. Activities focused on strengthening road-safety governance, improving data collection and monitoring, advancing domestic strategies and aligning legislation with the EU road-safety acquis, including Directive 2008/96/EC on road-infrastructure safety management and its 2019 amendment. Regional cooperation and experience-sharing reached 72%, supported through Transport Community structures and the Western Balkans Road Safety Observatory The total number of road traffic fatalities in the region fell from 1,261 in 2023 to 1,225 in 2024, a reduction of 2.9 However, North Macedonia recorded an increase of 11.8% and Serbia an increase of 2.2%, while fatalities declined in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro. These results raise concerns regarding the regional objective of reducing fatalities and serious injuries by 50% by 2030. Progress towards this target remains highly uneven, with particularly pronounced gaps in several WB6 compared with the EU27 reference value.    
Implementation rates for the principal road-safety pillars stand at 52% for road-safety management, 57% for safe road infrastructure, 58% for road-user protection and only 37% for the promotion of safe vehicles. Progress was recorded in domestic road-safety strategies, targeted enforcement, speed management, infrastructure audits, protection of vulnerable road users and awareness-raising. Nevertheless, institutional coordination remains weak in several WB6, harmonised serious-injury data systems are incomplete and implementation of EU vehicle-safety and type-approval requirements remains limited.

Further progress requires stronger institutional coordination and enforcement, full implementation of road-infrastructure safety standards, more systematic collection of fatality and serious-injury data, accelerated alignment of vehicle-safety rules and coordinated regional action. Particular attention is needed to the transposition and operational implementation of Directive 2015/413 and the establishment of effective intraregional information exchange on road-safety-related traffic offences.

Note: Action 23 of the first Green Agenda Action Plan (2021–2030), concerning the implementation of the Regional Road Safety Action Plan, is not retained in the Revised Action Plan (2025–2030), as it was assessed to have limited direct impact on air pollution reduction and the greening of the transport sector.

Source: Transport Community (2025). Progress Report on Implementation of Next Generation Action Plans and EU Acquis Transposition for Western Balkans. Belgrade: Transport Community Secretariat. Data reproduced in: Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) (2025). Report on the Implementation of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans Action Plan (GARI 2025), Figure 14. Sarajevo: RCC.

Source: Transport Community (2025). Progress Report on Implementation of Next Generation Action Plans and EU Acquis Transposition for Western Balkans. Belgrade: Transport Community Secretariat. Data reproduced in: Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) (2025). Report on the Implementation of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans Action Plan (GARI 2025), Figure 15. Sarajevo: RCC.

Source: Transport Community (2025). Progress Report on Implementation of Next Generation Action Plans and EU Acquis Transposition for Western Balkans. Belgrade: Transport Community Secretariat. Data reproduced in: Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) (2025). Report on the Implementation of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans Action Plan (GARI 2025), Figure 16. Sarajevo: RCC.

Source: Transport Community (2025). Progress Report on Implementation of Next Generation Action Plans and EU Acquis Transposition for Western Balkans. Belgrade: Transport Community Secretariat. Data reproduced in: Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) (2025). Report on the Implementation of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans Action Plan (GARI 2025), Figure 17. Sarajevo: RCC.

Source: Transport Community (2025). Progress Report on Implementation of Next Generation Action Plans and EU Acquis Transposition for Western Balkans. Belgrade: Transport Community Secretariat. Data reproduced in: Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) (2025). Report on the Implementation of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans Action Plan (GARI 2025), Figure 18. Sarajevo: RCC.