28/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - Paolo Costa (ALDE, Italy), Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Transport, is very disappointed that the Council had failed to reach agreement on the European driving licence, and about the decision to defer everything till the autumn (EUROPE 8978). Parliament and Council Presidency had nonetheless made concessions that should have “allowed the birth of the European driver's licence to be announced today - an instrument of European awareness intended to repeat the success of the European passport that came out of the Schengen agreements”, Mr Costa said in a press release. The European licence “facilitates the movement of citizens, contributes to road safety (by introducing the same rules for all) and considerably contains fraud and forgery of documents”, Mr Costa said, recalling that, at the present time, 100 different kinds of licences are in use in the EU.