ECJ ruling rejects extreme fines for licence offenders

Date: 07/03/1996

By Rory Watson

DRIVERS who ignore European legislation and fail to exchange their licences when spending a lengthy period in another EU country no longer face the penalty of a heavy fine or a spell in prison.

A ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) this week maintained that punishment on such a scale, particularly imprisonment, constituted an obstacle to the free movement of people.

The opinion will come as a relief to any citizens who passed their driving test in one member state and, inadvertently or otherwise, continue to use their original licences even though they have lived elsewhere in the Union for more than a year.

Clarification of the law emerged when a Greek couple, Sofia Skanavi and her husband Konstantin Chryssanthakopoulos, faced criminal proceedings and combined fines of 3,200 ecu for driving on their Greek licences one year and 13 days after moving to Germany.

Under German law, anyone failing to exchange a licence within a year of residence is treated in the same way as a person who has never held a driving licence, and faces criminal charges with the prospect of up to one year in prison or a fine.

The Court accepted that member states can insist that driving licences are exchanged under a 1980 EU directive, but that this was essentially a way of meeting administrative requirements. It ruled that authorities could impose minor penalties on anyone who failed to do so, but that to treat them as a criminal would not be proportional to the gravity of the infringement.

The ruling may soon be academic. New EU legislation, valid from 1 July, will ensure that EU driving licences are mutually recognised. It also removes the need to exchange licences on the grounds that this is an obstacle to the free movement of people and, say the judges, “inadmissible in the light of the progress made towards European integration”.