WRITTEN QUESTION E-0124/02

by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission

(29 January 2002)

Subject: Licence to drive a bus or coach

In Italy, when bus or coach drivers reach the age of sixty-five their licence to drive a bus or coach is automatically revoked. This does not seem to happen in other countries of the European Union, where no such restriction exists and drivers keep their licence to drive a bus or coach even after the age of sixty-five as long as they are judged to be mentally and physically fit.

This means that a German citizen of over sixty-five is for example perfectly free to drive a bus or coach in Italy although an Italian of the same age is precluded from doing so.

This leads to a disparity to the disadvantage of small and very small Italian family undertakings in that sector.

In view of the above facts, can the Commission answer the following questions:

1. Do any European Union directives exist on this subject?

2. What is the situation in the other Member States?

3. What are its views on this matter?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(12 March 2002)

1. Council Directive 91/439/EEC of 29 July 1991 on driving licences(1), which was adopted on 29 July 1991, entered into force on 1 July 1996. It provides for the mutual recognition of all driving licences issued in the Member States. However, each Member State retains full responsibility for determining the period of validity of its national licences (Article 1(3) of the Directive).

2. The situation is complex and differs considerably from one Member State to another. Moreover, the period of validity of a licence is not always linked to the regular medical examinations which the Member States have to make drivers of heavy goods vehicles and buses or coaches undergo in order to assess their physical fitness to drive(2).

There are three Member States apart from Italy in which a licence to drive a bus or coach may not be renewed once the driver has reached a certain age: Portugal for drivers over 65, Finland for drivers over 70 and Luxembourg for drivers over 75. Full information about the other Member States is being sent directly to the Honourable Member and to the Secretariat-General of Parliament.

3. In view of the complexity of the subject, which has been recognised by the Court of Justice(3), driving licences have to be harmonised gradually.

Even if the period of validity of licences is not yet harmonised, it should be pointed out that paragraph 4 of Annex III to the abovementioned Directive 91/439/EEC already provides for regular medical examinations of drivers of heavy goods vehicles, buses and coaches. In a general manner, these examinations to a certain extent limit the period of validity of licences for these groups of drivers.

The Commission is currently considering the advisability of a proposal for a Directive amending Directive 91/439/EEC to include the introduction of a harmonised period of validity for all categories of driving licence, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, in the framework of its future action programme on road safety.

(1) OJ L 237, 24.8.1991.

(2) Pursuant to Annex III, paragraph 4, of Directive 91/439/EEC.

(3) Case C-193/94 Skanavi, [1996] ECR I-00929, at paragraph 27.