On Friday 9 June, the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union presented a new proposal for the revision of the European driving licence at the meeting of the Working Group on Land Transport. This proposal responds in part to the expectations expressed by Member States during the public debate at the last ‘Transport’ Council (see EUROPE 13192/17).
The text obtained by EUROPE stipulates that driving licences will only be issued to applicants who have been resident in the issuing Member State for at least 6 months prior to submitting their application.
It also provides for a ten-year administrative validity period for driving licences issued by Member States for categories AM, A1, A2, A, B, B1 and BE. This period only applies to those Member States whose national legislation allows the driving licence to be used as a personal identification document.
The main change is the increase in the threshold at which the period of validity of the licence can be reduced. Instead of the age of 70 years initially envisaged by the European Commission, the Presidency has suggested that Member States should ensure that a person who has reached the age of 75 must renew their driving licence. “From that age onwards, the administrative validity of the driving licence issued or renewed is 5 years”, it says.
From the age of 60, Member States could still decide to gradually shorten the administrative validity of the driving licences they issue or renew in order to avoid excessively short renewal periods for licence holders approaching the age of 75.
As for medical checks, which are also of concern to drivers’ representatives (see EUROPE 13196/12), this is a matter for the Member States, which may decide to apply additional medical checks, refresher courses or other road safety measures when a driving licence is first issued or renewed in order to check the holder’s fitness to drive. Member States may, for justified reasons, apply the rules set out in this subparagraph from the age of 65.
Finally, accompanied driving would be possible from the age of 17. The accompanying person must be at least 24 years old - compared with 25 in the initial proposal. They must also not have been disqualified from driving in the last 5 years in the EU.
Read the text: https://aeur.eu/f/7fn (Original in French by Anne Damiani)