EU plans a 18 MPH speed limit

Proposals to enforce a speed limit of less than 20mph in all residential areas of the European Union were slammed by British politicians last night. Tory MEPs condemned plans to lower the limit to 30km (18.6mph) as "silly" and criticised dozens of other road safety ideas endorsed by a show of hands in the European Parliament. They included replacing Britain's Highway Code with a European version, introducing standardised road signs across all member states and common drink drive-limits. Jacqueline Foster, Tory MEP for the North West, said: "Of course speed limits as low as 20mph or so can be right in some very specific areas, especially near schools or nurseries, but every location is different and these decisions need to be made case by case - not by a Europe-wide edict." Ms Foster added that a British road sign declaring "Speed limit - 18.64mph" would be "plain silly". The proposals were presented by German MEP Dieter-Lebrecht Koch, who claimed they could halve road deaths by 2020.