It's official; there is finally a law that will be put in place across Europe that will allow the violation of traffic offences in one country to be enforced in the offenders resident country.

The Council today adopted a directive on cross-border exchange of information on road traffic offences. Member States will have two years to transpose it into their national legislation. The objective of this directive is to combat road traffic offences that considerably jeopardise road safety, by facilitating cross-border exchange of information.

The proposal for a Directive on cross border enforcement in the field of road safety will target the major offences that cause road traffic injuries to cyclists and in particular, speeding and drink driving. It will allow for the electronic sharing of data on the owner of the vehicle who has committed the offence to be shared across the EU (except Ireland, the UK and Denmark who have opted out for now). The objective is to introduce a system of exchanging information to enable the follow up of road safety related traffic offences committed by non-resident drivers. 

Though this is not intended as a way of harmonising Highway codes or sentencing for offenders, it is an important step towards greater enforcement of road safety legislation. The Council press release is available here.

The ECF Road Safety Charter had identified the Cross-Border enforcement Directive as a key issue as it would result in higher levels of safety through enforcement. It's a welcome move from the EU. 

Click here for a previous article on this issue

Ceri Woolsgrove, ECF Policy Officer- Road Safety & Technical Issues- is from the UK and has worked extensively in London, Brighton, Liverpool (UK), Hang Zhou (China) and now in Brussels. His previous employment was for an organisation representing the transport industry in Brussels. Ceri has a Master’s degree in Globalization and International Policy Analysis from the University of Bath, and Social and Political Thought from the University of Sussex.