ECJ strikes down EU sharing of speeding ticket data

High court rules that requiring member states to share information about foreign drivers who receive speeding fines goes beyond the EU’s competence.

By

The European Court of Justice today (6 May) struck down a 2010 law designed to make it easier to track down and punish European Union motorists who commit traffic offences in a member state where they are not resident.

The high court found that the directive was adopted on the wrong legal basis, relying on the EU’s competence in the field of police co-operation.

The directive set up a procedure for the exchange of information about eight road traffic offences: speeding, non-use of a seat-belt, failing to stop at a traffic light, drug- and drink-driving, failing to wear a helmet, use of a forbidden lane and illegally using a mobile phone. Under the legislation, member states can access each other’s national data concerning vehicle registration in order to determine the person liable for the offence.

The court found that these measures do not concern ‘prevention of crime’ as defined under the police co-operation rules, but rather road safety, which is a transport issue. “The directive is a measure to improve transport safety and should therefore have been adopted on that basis,” the court found. “The directive is not directly linked to the objectives of police co-operation, in so far as they cover, first, the framing of a common policy on asylum, immigration and external border control and, second, the prevention of crime, racism and xenophobia.”

However the court granted a one-year reprieve for the rules, which have only been in effect since November 2013.

The legal basis was changed to policing by member states and MEPs during the course of negotiations. After the law was adopted, the Commission launched the challenge with the ECJ, believing the law had been adopted on the wrong legal basis.

A European Commission spokesperson said a new proposal will be put forward in the coming months that will change the legal basis to be under EU transport policy. The goal is to get the new proposal approved before the one-year reprieve runs out in May 2015.

Authors:
Dave Keating 

Click Here: France Football Shop