EEC driving licence: latest plan rules out medicals
Page 15
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
NEW PROPOSALS about a common driving licence Mr EEC member States are to be discussed shortly by the European Parliament regional and transport committee.
They include suggestions about how the national driving licences will be integrated into a single licence within five years after the proposals are accepted by the EEC Commission.
In the interim, two years after the draft Directive is adopted, the Community licence will then become operative but the national licence will still remain valid.
It will be up to the individual driver to decide whether to be satisfied with the national licence or apply for the Community licence. It has not been made clear whether the national licence will be acceptable in the other member States during the interim period and the EEC organisation in London was unable to clarify this point this week.
The qualifications required for obtaining a Community licence are not as Stringent as was first proposed in 1972.
The medical tests originally required have been dispensed with, but after five years driving licences will no longer be issued on the present national criteria, if the proposals are adopted.
Examinations
Instead, practical and theoretical examinations will be imposed and a satisfactory state of health will have to be established.
There will be seven categories of licence; these will be: (a) Motorcycles; (b) Motor vehicles not exceeding 3.5 tonnes gross and with not more than nine seats including that of the driver; (c) Motor vehicles used for the carriage of goods exceeding 3.5 tonnes gross; (d) Motor vehicle with more than nine seats including that of the driver; (e) Caravans or other trailers of which the driver of the drawing vehicle has a licence under (b), (c) or (d); (11) Engineering plant; (f2) Agricultural, forestry and showmen's tractors with or without a trailer capable of being drawn on a road,
Minimum ages
The minimum ages for holding a Community licence will be 16 years for category (f2); 18 years for categories (a), (b) and (c). This could be amended as the result of a survey to be carried out about the rate of accidents incurred by drivers of the ages of 17 and 18 years; 21 for all other categories.
A national register of drivers recording all offences other than those punishable only by a fine or a fixed penalty to establish circumstances in which driving licences may he suspended, withdrawn or restored on a common basis throughout the Community, might also be imposed.