France is finally set to revoke the 100-horsepower limit that has been imposed on all motorcycles made for retail sale in that country since 1985. A vote by the European Union parliament has approved a regulation stating that as of 2016, member states of the EU will no longer have the option to restrict the maximum power output of motorcycles to 75kw (100 horsepower). France was the only country still enforcing the right to refuse motorcycles with power outputs exceeding that mark (Germany had manufacturers voluntarily opting to follow that regulation but it was discarded in 1995), and it will have to abide by the unified EU vote.
Although appearing as if it was meant as a safety measure (and often used in political soapbox wailings during election years), the 100-horsepower limit was actually originally intended as a sort of tariff restriction to assist struggling European motorcycle manufacturers. Whether the French government saw it that way or not, continual research by European agencies showed that the 100-horsepower limit had no discernable affect on fatalities, leading to the eventual repeal of the regulation.
Of perhaps more importance was the acceptance of a regulation requiring all motorcycles larger than 125cc to be equipped with ABS as standard equipment. There are already a few manufacturers that have stated they will be making ABS available as standard equipment before then (BMW already has ABS on all of its 2013 models, while Honda has it available on all of its models larger than 250cc), but requiring all manufacturers to install ABS may be a financial burden on the smaller European manufacturers.