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EU Council: ‘implement national driving disqualifications across the EU’

The European Council has adopted a negotiating position to improve road safety by addressing driving disqualifications across the EU. The proposal requires that a member state which issues a driving licence must enforce driving disqualifications imposed by another member state for serious traffic offences, improving road safety by removing dangerous drivers across the EU.

The next step is negotiations with the European Parliament.The European Parliament earlier said driving disqualification should apply in all EU countries (click here for an article from 29 November 2023).

Key points include:

  • The proposal aims to ensure mutual recognition of disqualifications for non-resident drivers.
  • Certain disqualifications (less than three months or with under a month remaining) will be excluded.
  • Information will be exchanged digitally via the EU driving licence network.
  • Member states retain flexibility to apply national rules for disqualifications within their territory.
  • A review clause will assess potential expansion to other offences or repeat offenders.
  • A transposition period of three years is set.
  • All member states can implement the directive even when certain types of driving disqualifications do not exist in their national system.

“Drivers who had their driving licence withdrawn in one member state for serious breaches to road traffic rules, will be taken off the roads across the EU”, said Bálint Nagy, Hungarian minister of state of transport.

In its EU road safety policy framework 2021-2030, the European Commission recommitted to the ambitious aim to get close to zero deaths and zero serious injuries on EU roads by 2050 (‘Vision Zero’), as well as to the medium-term goal to reduce deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2030. However, road fatalities were up 4% last year from 2021, according to latest Commission data. This is still 9 % below pre-pandemic level, but the pace of improvement is not sufficient to reach the above-mentioned goals.

The members of the European Council are the heads of state or government of the 27 EU member states, the European Council President and the President of the European Commission.

Photo courtesy of the European Union

Source: European Council

Top photograph courtesy of Kees Meijer

This article is subject to FEMA’s copyright

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