The Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations (FEMA) Committee, consisting of the delegates from all the member organisations, the FEMA staff, and invited guests, took place on 2nd October 2022. The meeting was generously hosted by IVM, the German industry Association, in their conference room at Koelncongress, Cologne, Germany.

There were 16 delegates and 4 guests, plus the staff, attending physically, with a further 5 delegates joining virtually, via Teams.

The meeting was opened by the FEMA President, Anna Zee, also the BMF’s Political Technical Services (PTS) director, welcoming everyone, and listing the apologies. Due to transport problems, a number of delegates registered could not attend; with the unluckiest being MCTC’s Soren Bendtsen who was delayed at the airport for 4 hours, flown to another airport, not his destination, then returned back to his departure airport!

After the routine meeting admin, the Treasurer, Jim Freeman, also the BMF’s delegate, attending online, made his report and introduced the draft 2023 Budget, to be approved at the FEMA AGM in February 2023. Given the very uncertain financial outlook, a number of options were suggested, which may well be amended.

There was an invitation for candidate Board members to put themselves forward, for election in 2023. The entire existing Board offered to continue, however the President suggested that this would be the last year that she would stand for re-election, as she’d have been in post for 10 years in 2024.

Biker’s Voice Austria, after a year’s Observer status, were due to become full members of FEMA, unfortunately, they said they couldn’t afford the fees. Accordingly, their proposed membership was suspended, sine die.

The Mobility Tests were discussed and will be run again in 2023.

Following the request of the Committee, in June, the FEMA-FIM-NMC working group had reviewed the existing position paper on decarbonisation, but could not agree a revision. The meeting voted to support the existing position paper, without opposition.

Presentations were made by:

Reiner Brendicke, IVM.

Martin Winkelbauer, from KfV, a research institute on road safety, on road markings and new infrastructure guidelines. The impact of this work has already been marked, both on motorcycle accidents and noise protests, particularly in mountain areas.

Jesper Christiansen, SMC and FIM E, about the progress of the ‘Vision Electric’ campaign in Sweden. The most interesting was the effect on non-motorcyclists, many non-riders tried the test fleet, all funded by SMC, not the manufacturers, and found them to be fantastic fun, and unintimidating. Jesper had also made some technical discoveries, which were being incorporated by the manufacturers.

Dolf Willigers, FEMA General Secretary, made a presentation on the TESLA Autopilot and its Euro NCAP rating. This follows 2 deaths of motorcyclists, at the hands of TESLA vehicles, which failed to recognise motorcycles from the rear. This appears to be due to TESLA dropping LIDAR sensors and relying solely on camera sensors, as a cost cutting measure. Dolf questioned euro NCAPS five-star rating of TESLAs, particularly after previous instances of non-recognition of motorcycles.

The staff both made brief reports, on Secretariat and Communications activity.

The meeting concluded, after the usual future meetings admin, at 14.29 CET.

Written by Jim Freeman

Abbreviations key:

FEMA – Federation of European Motorcyclists’ Associations

FIM – Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme

FIM E – FIM Europe

NMC – National Motorcyclists Council

MCTC – The National Association of Motorcyclists – Denmark

IVM – Industry Association Motorcycle Germany E. V

KfV – Kuratorium für Verkehrssicherheit

SMC – Sveriges MotorCyklister – Sweden

Top image courtesy of Wim Taal