Verkeersboetes uit andere EU-landen moeten worden betaald (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Drivers who are caught speeding or not wearing their seatbelt while on holiday in another EU nation will no longer be able to ignore traffic fines when they get home under a draft directive transport ministers are set to consider on Thursday (2 December).
Those found to have made traffic offences made abroad will now be punished right across the bloc.
Transport commissioner Siim Kallas said of the proposals: "Many people seem to think that when they go abroad the rules no longer apply to them. My message is that they do apply and now we are going to apply them."
Foreign drivers are three times more likely to commit offences than resident drivers, according to the commission, and account for five percent of traffic but around 15 percent of speeding offences. Most go unpunished, with countries unable to pursue drivers once they return home.
Ministers are set to consider proposals from the EU executive that target specifically those offences that have a critical impact on road safety, including what the commission describes as the four "big killers" - speeding, running red lights, failure to wear a seatbelt and drunk driving - which cause 75 percent of road fatilities.
Driving under influence of drugs, failing to wear safety helmets, illegal use of an emergency lane and using of a mobile phone while driving will also be covered by the new rules.
The directive would see drivers identified via giving member states mutual access to each others' vehicle registration data via a new electronic data network yet to be built.
Offence notifications would then be sent to the driver.
However, the commission stresses that the directive will not lead to a harmonisation of driving rules and penalties, but it will be up the the member state where the offence occurred to decide how to proceed.
After ministers agree to the proposals, they will then have to be approved by the European Parliament, with a two-year period to allow the states to transpose the bill into domestic law.