Gathered in Brussels on Thursday, 5 December, European transport ministers adopted their negotiating position (general approach) on the directive on driving disqualifications (see EUROPE 13538/7).
Presented by the European Commission in March 2023, this directive is part of the ‘road safety’ package (see EUROPE 13435/12) and aims to put an end to the relative impunity of serious traffic offenders who are not European residents.
During the public debate, Hungarian State Secretary [for Transport] Bálint Sándor Nagy stressed, “Drivers who had their driving licence withdrawn in one member state for serious breaches to road traffic rules will be taken off the roads across the EU.” He explained, “It is not a matter of harmonising national rules or procedures.”
Link with the directive on driving licences. The Hungarian stressed, “The text is based on the new directive on driving licences”, which is currently being negotiated (see EUROPE 13511/4). Rather than opting for the ‘EU-wide effect’ concept proposed by the European Commission, the EU Council’s position is based on the mechanism of mutual recognition of driving licences – provided for in the new directive on driving licences – given that a Member State cannot guarantee that its national decisions regarding driving disqualifications will be implemented by the other Member States.
The provisions in this directive pertaining to recovering a licence or applying for a new licence after a withdrawal have also been brought into alignment with the new directive on driving licences.
This solution satisfied new European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apóstolos Tzitzikóstas, but he indicated, “the two files should be treated separately during interinstitutional negotiations”.
Reduced scope and simplified administration. In its position, the Council of the EU has reduced the scope of the directive and simplified procedures. Driving disqualifications with a duration of less than three months and for which the remaining period to be served is less than one month have been excluded. The information that is contained in the notification of driving disqualification as well as the amount of information that is to be exchanged between the Member State of issuance and the Member State of the offence have been limited to the minimum necessary.
All information will be exchanged in a secured digital format via the European driving licence network (RESPER).
The EU Council also introduced a review clause – notably to assess the possibility of extending the application of the directive to other driving offences or driving disqualifications imposed in connection with offences committed by the same driver on multiple occasions.
While Latvia lamented abandoning the points-based system for driving licences, Ireland and Romania expressed some reservations having to do with legal issues and the administrative burden. Cyprus asked for a little more clarity. However, the text was approved unanimously.
The adoption of this text will allow interinstitutional negotiations to begin with the European Parliament (see EUROPE 13499/19) under the Polish Presidency of the Council.
Read the general approach: https://aeur.eu/f/en9 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)