Union-wide effect of certain driving disqualifications

The European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution approving the Council's position at first reading with a view to adopting a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending the Driving Licence Directive as regards certain driving disqualifications.

The proposed directive aims to establish a Union framework for a Union-wide effect of certain driving disqualifications to prevent the relative impunity of non-resident road traffic serious offenders. It provides that the Member State which issued such offender’s driving licence (Member State of issuance) will be obliged to implement, under specific conditions and in accordance with its own national legislation, a driving disqualification imposed by the Member State where a serious road-safety-related traffic offence has been committed (Member State of the offence).

The provisions of the directive will be incorporated into the revised driving licence directive.

The main elements of the Council's position are as follows:

- to reduce dangerous driving behaviour abroad, decisions to withdraw, suspend or restrict a driving licence will be forwarded to the EU country that issued the document, in order to ensure cross-border enforcement of sanctions;

- national authorities will inform each other, without undue delay, of decisions to disqualify the right to drive relating to the most serious road traffic offences such as speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, resulting in death or serious bodily injury as a result of a road traffic offence;

- only disqualifications lasting longer than three months will fall within the scope of the directive;

- notification to the Member State issuing the driving disqualification will be transmitted electronically by means of a standard certificate for the notification of a driving disqualification. The certificate will contain the contact details of the authority in the Member State of the offence which imposed the driving disqualification, the offence leading to the driving ban that was committed, the resulting driving disqualification and the person subject to the driving disqualification;

- the standard driving disqualification certificate will be transmitted in any official language of the institutions of the Union that is an official language of the Member State of issuance, or in any other official language of the institutions of the Union that the Member State of issuance has accepted;

- the issuing Member State must ensure that its competent authorities have the power to implement a withdrawal, suspension or restriction of the driving licence on the basis of a driving disqualification notified to them;

- the Member State that issued the driving licence may decide not to implement a driving disqualification when it is solely based on a speeding offence of less than 50 km/h;

- the Member State that issued the driving licence will, to the extent possible, notify the offender within 20 working days of receiving the disqualification notification from the Member State where the offence was committed. The Member State that issued the driving licence may apply additional road safety measures beyond those provided for in the disqualification;

- five years after the entry into force of the Directive, and every five years thereafter, the Commission will examine the possibility of extending its application to driving disqualifications imposed on the basis of traffic offences other than driving disqualification offences, to further improve the EU driving licence network as necessary to reduce administrative burden and optimise the notification processes.