News

EU: Driving bans to apply throughout Europe

EU: Driving bans to apply throughout Europe


The EU Commission has set itself the goal of halving the number of fatalities and serious injuries in traffic accidents by 2030. To achieve this goal, the EU Commission wants to act in various areas. In addition to a digital driver's license and modern driver's license regulations, the EU Commission also wants to prevent traffic offenders from going unpunished when they commit traffic offenses abroad.
To ensure that this can also be implemented in practice, a new system is to be created with which an EU-wide driving ban can be imposed. Until now, if someone drove too fast on vacation in Italy, for example, and had to hand in their driver's license because of it, the driving ban of, say, one month, only applied in that country. For vacationers who were nevertheless allowed to drive to their vacation destination and back to their hometown, the sanction had almost no consequences.
Michael Nissen, head of foreign law at the ADAC's legal headquarters, agrees that this should change in the interests of road safety throughout Europe. In addition, it could have a traffic education effect.
The proposal covers serious traffic offenses such as excessive speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and traffic offenses resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
To ensure the necessary communication between states, the EU Commission further proposes to strengthen the role of existing national contact points so that they can better cooperate with law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation of offenses. This will address the problems that currently still exist regarding cooperation between member states in the investigation of traffic offenses.
However, it will take some time before the EU Commission's directive is transposed into national law. There is still a need for discussion and clarification, particularly on the issue of owner liability and the different penalties for traffic violations in the EU member states.


Go back