Prague/Brussels, Nov 19 (CTK correspondent) – The Czech Transport Ministry dismissed yesterday the criticism of the European Commission (EC) that sent the Czech Republic and another four countries to the EU Court of Justice for not transposing the EU directive on driving licences into their national rules.
The EC announced it within its regular package of the EU members´s transgressions of the EU law yesterday.
The EU launched proceedings over this problem in the summer of 2014. In February, it warned the Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia of it for the second time.
However, the Czech Transport Ministry announced in reaction to it that the regulations on the driving licence issuing had been modified in harmony with the EU rules.
The EC says the Czech Republic failed in 2004-2011 to secure the issuing of driving licences only to the persons who really stayed in the Czech Republic.
According to the EC, this is an important part of the fight against driving licence frauds, for instance, if people attempt to avoid the ban on driving in one EU member state by applying for a driving licence in another country.
The driving licences from 2004-2011, which are still valid, threaten the trustworthy character of the driving licence system in the EU as well as traffic safety, the EC points out.
“We have already reacted to the EU bodies´ objections in an amendment to the law on road traffic and two directives that have taken effect. The amendment is waiting for the final approval process in the Chamber of Deputies. As far as the ´driving licence tourism´ is concerned, we actively cooperate with both Czech and German detectives to suppress these frauds,” Transport Ministry spokesman Tomas Nerold said.
The ministry is prepared to assure the EC that the regulations are in full harmony with the EU directive, Nerold added.
The EC has also turned to the EU Court of Justice since the five countries have not yet joined the European network of driving licences called “Resper,” which is to secure that people in the EU hold only one driving licence each. The information exchange within this network was to be launched in January 2013.
