COMMISSION DIRECTIVE (EU) 2020/612

of 4 May 2020

amending Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on driving licences

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on driving licences (1), and in particular Article 8 thereof,

Whereas:

(1) The existing specific provisions concerning the Member States’ possibility to decide that no restriction to vehicles with automatic transmission shall be recorded on the driving licence of holders of a driving licence for vehicles of category C, CE, D and DE should be extended to holders of driving licences for vehicles of category BE, C1, C1E, D1 and D1E when the applicant already holds a driving licence obtained on a vehicle with manual transmission in at least one of the following categories: B, BE, C, CE, C1, C1E, D, DE, D1 or D1E.

(2) That extension should be carried out in the light of technical progress, in particular in order to take into account the development and increasing use, in the transport industry, of more modern, safer and less polluting vehicles equipped with a wide range of semi-automatic, automatic or hybrid transmission systems. Furthermore, the simplification of the existing restrictions on driving automatic vehicles would reduce the administrative and financial burden on stakeholders, including SMEs and micro-enterprises operating in the field of road transport.

(3) The requirements for test vehicle motorcycles of category A2 to be used during the test of skills and behaviour need to be adapted to technical progress, in particular to combustion engine and chassis development and to the wider use of electric motorcycles. The adaptation of the technical specifications for category A2 test vehicles should also ensure that applicants are tested on vehicles that are representative of the category for which the driving licence would be issued.

(4) Directive 2006/126/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.

(5) In accordance with the Joint Political Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member States and the Commission on explanatory documents (2), Member States have undertaken to accompany, in justified cases, the notification of their transposition measures with one or more documents explaining the relationship between the components of a directive and the corresponding parts of national transposition instruments.

(6) The measures provided for in this Directive are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee on driving licences,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1 Annex II to Directive 2006/126/EC is amended in accordance with the Annex to this Directive.

Article 2 1. Member States shall adopt and publish, by 1 November 2020 at the latest, the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive. They shall forthwith communicate to the Commission the text of those provisions. They shall apply those provisions from 1 November 2020. When Member States adopt those provisions, they shall contain a reference to this Directive or be accompanied by such a reference on the occasion of their official publication. Member States shall determine how such reference is to be made. 2. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the text of the main provisions of national law which they adopt in the field covered by this Directive.

Article 3 This Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Article 4 This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 4 May 2020. For the Commission The President Ursula VON DER LEYEN

(1) OJ L 403, 30.12.2006, p. 18.

(2) OJ C 369, 17.12.2011, p. 14.