New police agreement against speeding, illegal parking and the like: Swiss will no longer be able to avoid German buses

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It has been daily life in the European Union (EU) for a long time. In other EU countries, EU citizens who drive too fast, drive with their mobile phone to their ear, or park incorrectly cannot escape punishment. If you ignore the payment order sent from abroad, the police there may contact their German counterparts who will collect the fines. However, this is how things will be done between Germany and Switzerland in the future.

This is made possible by a new agreement between the two countries to “intensify cross-border police and judicial cooperation”. The text of the law has been available for more than a year; At the end of November, the German Federal Council, the parliamentary representative of the federal states, finally approved the agreement. It will be valid as soon as it is published in the German Federal Law Gazette together with the date of entry into force. The broadcast is planned for December.

Swiss authorities collect German buses

What does this mean for the Swiss? Anyone who has previously been fined in Germany and later finds the payment instruction in their mailbox can pay or ignore the fine. This meant that every trip to Germany became a risk: if a traffic offender was caught at customs or police control entering the country, he would probably have to pay additional charges due to accumulated late fees. Many Swiss people avoided this by not traveling to Germany.

With the new police agreement, German police officers will be able to request assistance from Swiss authorities in the future to collect unpaid fines by requesting enforcement assistance. The opposite is also true: Fines for violations committed by Germans in Switzerland may also be collected by the German police in the future. Condition: The fine must be at least 70 euros or 80 francs. Secondly, legal remedies, that is, objection, must be possible. Thirdly, enforcement assistance is possible only if it does not involve imprisonment in connection with the traffic offense.

Thousands of applications are expected

All fines collected go to the state requesting enforcement assistance; No fees or expenses will be refunded for enforcement assistance. The contracting parties apparently assume that the costs of collecting fines from the other country will balance out in the long run.

According to German radio station SWR, the German Federal Ministry of Justice expects 3,000 incoming and 1,500 outgoing requests for enforcement assistance next year; This means that the demands made by Switzerland on Germany are twice as high. By 2025, this number is expected to reach 5,000 inbound and 6,000 outbound queries.

So who benefits more from regulation?

By the way, regulation is not actually new; It was similarly envisaged in the earlier police agreement but was never implemented. For a long time, traffic offenders were lucky to avoid paying fines. However: Similar regulations currently apply to our neighbors Liechtenstein, Austria and France. Fines are already collected here beyond the borders.

However, Swiss officials are likely to benefit more from the new agreement. Traffic fines in our country can sometimes be 3-4 times higher than in Germany, depending on the type of crime. The new contract is likely to rattle the coffers in Switzerland much more than in Germany, as German drivers will not be able to avoid Swiss buses in the future.

Source: Blick