EU parliament has now voted in favour of the new laws to empower European police. The police will be able to hunt down the foreigner drivers for over speeding and fine them on traffic offences. British drivers, if caught committing any motoring offence in the Europe, will be fined and the data for the car and drivers will be taken from DVLA. It will potentially put a strain on the Justice system in the United Kingdom.
Currently, Brits using their own vehicles while in Europe saves them from speed cameras because they do not have any records. The only way was, if caught by any local police, they collect the fine at the spot.
Now this is all going to change as European Parliament has voted in the favour of laws to empower the EU police department to track and pursue the payments. 91 per cent of MEPs voted in favour of new laws, it will help the EU in cutting road deaths by almost half and their target to decrease injuries by 40 per cent by 2020.
The number plate of the vehicle will be used to trace out the owner of the vehicle, address and country of residence. These details will be used to send him official letters demanding payments of fines and threat of strict court actions.
European countries estimate that there are more Brits involved in traffic offences than other foreigner drivers. The French Government has claimed half a million British drivers involved in traffic offences in France every year, only a tip of the iceberg if compared to the total number of British drivers in entire Europe.
Transport officials in UK are quite concerned about the new law, they said the EU law will put more burden on the Justice system of UK and court rooms being inundated by the requests from other countries.
New laws will cover speeding fines related to ignoring traffic lights, drunk driving and using mobile phones during the driving. It is not going to be a one-way action though, UK police will also trace the foreigners and stop them from flouting the laws here in UK.
Robert Goodwill assured that the Government would sturdily oppose any vote on shifting points. He said, “We will defend the rights of British drivers and have been clear that people’s private data must be protected,” he said. “Nothing in the new directive will allow a country to impose penalty points on the licence of a driver from another member state. The Government will oppose any such proposal.”
