For traffic offenses in the EU: Driving bans in one country must apply throughout the EU

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European Union (EU) countries are taking action on road safety. To reduce the number of accidents, they want to deter potential speeders, careless overtakers or those who drive too close with harsh penalties. One of the steps taken towards this was agreements on legal assistance in the cross-border prosecution of traffic offenders.

For example, since the beginning of the year, it has been possible for German police authorities in Switzerland to request legal assistance to collect fines imposed on Swiss drivers in Germany. Now the EU wants to put more pressure on traffic offenders.

Driving ban should be implemented EU-wide

Today, if an EU traffic offender is banned from driving because of an offense committed abroad, he can continue to drive in his home country and other EU countries. However, the EU Commission plans to ensure that driving bans imposed in one member state are also applied throughout the EU in the future, as part of a package of road safety measures. Concretely, this means that if a Belgian EU citizen is banned from driving in France, he will not be allowed to drive in Spain, Germany or his own country for the duration of this ban.

While this new regulation is intended to create a deterrent effect, it also needs to standardize the regulations in the EU. For example, in Germany, speeding more than 30 km per hour in urban areas results in a one-month driving ban, while in Italy you generally surrender your ID card if you speed more than 41 km per hour. Austria, on its own, has greatly tightened speeding fines. So far, around 40 percent of cross-border traffic violations in the EU go unpunished due to different laws and procedural processes in EU countries.

Standardization and tightening

There will also be stricter common regulations regarding the revocation of driver’s licenses in the future. According to the new regulations, if you exceed the speed limit by 50 km/h in general and 30 km/h in residential areas, your license will be cancelled. This also applies to driving without a license, drunk driving or traffic accidents resulting in death.

The European Union Parliament adopted the draft with a clear majority in February. In this context, individual EU parliamentarians have called for the confiscation of ID cards to be extended to include dangerous parking, rough overtaking, hit-and-run or driving in a straight line. However: The new EU regulations have only removed the first hurdle.

Regulation is still a long way off

In the EU’s complex legislative process, proposals are voted on in cycles between the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and member states’ councils until a common proposal is found. The decisive factor is the member states, which often have to give their final approval in lengthy negotiations. In reality, independent issues are often negotiated together: whoever compromises on issue A will also agree to issue B.

However, these negotiations are planned to start only after the European Parliament elections, which will be held between 6 and 9 June. And: If a compromise is eventually reached, member states will still have two years to adapt EU requirements into national law. It will likely be some time before the EU-wide driving ban comes into force.

What does this mean for the Swiss?

However, it is still useful to follow the process. Switzerland may also be affected in the future if the regulation is passed. For today, the following situation applies: If a foreign authority notifies Switzerland of a driving ban in an EU country, the local authority can check whether the traffic offense will also lead to cancellation in our country and then confiscate the ID card. The duration of the withdrawal is at the discretion of the authority.

However, anyone banned from driving in Germany is now allowed to continue driving in France as long as they maintain their Swiss licence. This may end in the future.

Source: Blick