Dodging foreign speeding fines set to become history
- 11 years ago
Dodging a speeding fine from your summer holiday could now be a thing of the past.
On Thursday, 25 EU countries started using a new system that makes fining motorists a lot easier.
The UK, Ireland and Denmark have refused to sign up.
It covers eight offences, including speeding and drink driving.
Michael Jonniaux, a police commissioner from Brussels told Euronews:
“Many countries refused to send us the identities of people committing offenses in Belgium and so it was impossible to obtain the identity of the driver.
Now this identification can be done by the Belgian police as quick as our European colleagues could.
We’ll have access to a European data base and so directly from their computers, they’ll be able to identify the offender. So it really simplifies things.”
But due to the difference in penalty systems between EU countries, no points will be added to the licences of foreign drivers.
And there are also no formal arrangements in place to force payment if motorists decided to ignore penalty notices sent to their home address.
On Thursday, 25 EU countries started using a new system that makes fining motorists a lot easier.
The UK, Ireland and Denmark have refused to sign up.
It covers eight offences, including speeding and drink driving.
Michael Jonniaux, a police commissioner from Brussels told Euronews:
“Many countries refused to send us the identities of people committing offenses in Belgium and so it was impossible to obtain the identity of the driver.
Now this identification can be done by the Belgian police as quick as our European colleagues could.
We’ll have access to a European data base and so directly from their computers, they’ll be able to identify the offender. So it really simplifies things.”
But due to the difference in penalty systems between EU countries, no points will be added to the licences of foreign drivers.
And there are also no formal arrangements in place to force payment if motorists decided to ignore penalty notices sent to their home address.