Europe: United Europe, United Speeding Fines |
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File under Travel
Author: Mike Werner
Location: Travelling
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It's strange if your think about it. They (the politicians) created the European Union with a vision that the member countries would have uniform laws & regulations but with independent local country laws. A bit like the United States of America. But with all the laws they have put in place, with all the lobbies, debates, protests for putting common agriculture, immigration, tax, etc laws, the one thing they have not done is a uniform speed ticket exchange. And this while almost everyone here drives or rides, and crosses borders.
Let me explain. A motorcycle driver from country A, visiting country B can speed at heart's content (unless stopped physically by the local cops), since when the automatic speed radar processes the motorcycle's (or car) license plate, it does not have access to country A's license plate registration system. So they can't send you an invoice. What a shame.... In Europe, foreign vehicles represent 5% of the local traffic, but 15% of the speeding offenses.
The same applies for other tickets, like parking, jumping red lights, etc as long as there's no police officer stopping you and asking you for your papers, most countries do not know your address.
Some European countries have made bilateral agreements, but there are only very few of them.
But all that is going to change. The European Transport Ministers have received a new "directive" from the European Commission that will put in place a procedure that will allow member countries to consult each other's license plate registration computer system. This way, country B can obtain the biker's address in country A if he/she got caught being naughty.
So now you can expect to receive your tickets at home when caught abroad. This is to happen within 2 years. European bureaucracies move at a very slow pace, so they need two years to put this into place.
Payment
But after sending the ticket, comes another problem.... that of paying the ticket. If country B sends you your ticket in country A, what are they going to do if you don't pay? They're not going to send their cops to get your money, it's just not worth it, and it's illegal.
Well, the European Union is addressing that issue as well. They are putting in place a system/law that will allow local cops from country A to get your money and send it to their counterparts in country B.
So that should take care of that problem. But...... in my experience this will never work, unless the local cops get to keep a part of the fine (which is not the case). Here in France at one stage I had accumulated 576 parking fines from Paris, but I lived outside Paris. A friend, a local police officer, told me that they would never come and collect my money since the local police department would have to send two officers to collect my money, and send all of the money to Paris. He stated that would never happen, they have other things to do.
So I sleep at peace every night, and will continue to do so.
Via: Europe1
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