Background

In 1994, the BENELUX countries set up a "Road transport inspection" working group. With this initiative, they wanted to work together on internationally organised and more thorough road transport inspections. The ultimate objective of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg was to significantly improve safety on European roads via harmonisation. It is little wonder that other countries quickly wished to join this cooperative association as well.

In 1997 the Benelux countries established relations with France, which led to the signing of an Administrative Arrangement on 5 October 1999 by the competent transport ministers. This date signified the official start of Euro Contrôle Route. Since then, the number of European countries has continued to grow. Euro Contrôle Route presently counts 20 interested countries, including 14 members.

Each of the members has signed the Administrative Arrangement. In this “gentlemen´s agreement”, the competent transport ministers of the respective countries support safer European roads via the ECR cooperation.

The first administrative agreement was signed on 5 October 1999 by the competent transport ministers of Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and France.

As a result of ECR´s vigorous expansion and in order to meet the evolving needs, a second agreement was signed on 22 March 2007. This time the competent transport ministers of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Poland, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria and Italy participated. Later in that year, Hungary also joined the ECR forces.

To continue developing the organisation, in 2012, the initiation of the process to transform the ECR into a new, more effective legal framework began.

On February 12, 2024, after an arduous procedure, the Convention and Statute of Euro Contrôle Route European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (ECR EGTC) are published in the Dutch official journal. Continuously on March 18, 2024, there was a formal registration with the Committee of the Regions and publication of information regarding the establishment of the ECR EGTC in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Currently, the ECR EGTC Secretariat and beating heart of the Euro Contrôle Route are located in Rijswijk, The Netherlands. Here the countries meet with one another to make agreements, improve the training of enforcers, and exchange information on checks and regulations.