Cross-border exchange of information on road-safety-related traffic offences
PURPOSE: to improve cooperation on road safety offences.
LEGISLATIVE ACT: Directive (EU) 2024/3237 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive (EU) 2015/413 facilitating cross-border exchange of information on road-safety-related traffic offences.
CONTENT: this directive amends the 2015 directive on the cross-border exchange of information on road safety-related traffic offences and is part of the road safety legislative package. The revised directive aims to (a) strengthen compliance by non-resident drivers with additional road safety rules, (b) streamline mutual assistance procedures between Member States in cross-border investigations of road safety-related traffic offences, and (c) enhance the protection of the fundamental rights of non-resident offenders where the offences are committed with a vehicle registered in a Member State other than the Member State in which the offence was committed.
Scope
The revised directive will expand the list of traffic offences committed by non-resident drivers that trigger cross-border assistance and can result in a fine. In addition to speeding, drink-driving or failing to stop at a red light, the new rules added dangerous parking, dangerous overtaking, crossing a solid line, hit and run offences, not respecting the rules on vehicle-access-restrictions, not respecting the rules at a railway level-crossing, amongst other offences.
The directive introduces the concept of the ‘concerned person’, as the person who is identified as liable for a road-safety-related traffic offence.
National contact points
The responsibilities and competences of national contact points are defined to ensure that they seamlessly cooperate with all competent authorities involved in the investigation of the road-safety-related traffic offences.
Each Member State will designate one or more national contact points for the automated exchange of vehicle registration data (VRD) as well as incoming and outgoing requests and responses for mutual assistance to identify the person concerned and incoming and outgoing requests and responses for mutual assistance to: (i) serve the traffic offence notice or follow-up documents to the person concerned; (ii) enforce final administrative decisions on road traffic fines imposed for road-safety-related traffic offences.
Access to data and mutual assistance
The directive clarifies the different procedures for accessing vehicle registration data and the different options for competent authorities to ask mutual assistance with a view to making sure that the concerned person is identified, the traffic offence notice arrives to the right place within a reasonable time frame and the sanction is enforced.
The traffic offence notice must contain all relevant information concerning the offence, in particular data relating to the vehicle with which the offence was committed, including its registration number, the place, date and time of the offence, the nature of the offence, a precise reference to the legal provisions infringed and, where applicable, data concerning the device used to detect the offence. It will also have to contain detailed information on the legal classification of the road-safety-related traffic offence, the applicable sanctions.
The traffic offence notice addressed to the holder, owner or end user of the vehicle will be issued no later than 11 months after the road-safety-related traffic offence. Where the competent authority of the Member State of the offence decides to initiate follow-up proceedings in relation to road-safety-related traffic offences, it will issue the traffic offence notice and any essential follow-up documents in the language of the registration document of the vehicle.
Member States will provide enforcement assistance to each other in the case of non-payment of a road traffic fine imposed for the commission of a road‑safety‑related traffic offences.
After the service of the traffic offence notice to the person concerned and in the case of non-payment of a road traffic fine imposed by the competent authority of the Member State of the offence, the latter may request the competent authority of the Member State of the registration or the Member State of residence to assist in the enforcement of administrative decisions on road traffic fines related to road‑safety-related traffic offences where the decision relating to a road traffic offence fine is administrative in nature, final and enforceable and the road traffic offence fine exceeds EUR 70.
Protection of fundamental rights
The revised directive provides for all necessary safeguards to protect the fundamental rights of the driver or any other person concerned, including by establishing a clear framework to prevent any abuse by private entities involved in the process of road-safety traffic offences and better mechanisms for the protection of personal data.
Information portal
The Commission will set up an online portal on road safety offences (known as the ‘CBE Portal’), available in all official languages of the EU institutions, dedicated to sharing information with road users on the rules in force in the Member States in the area covered by the directive.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 19.1.2025.
TRANSPOSITION: no later than 20.7.2027.