On Tuesday, EU countries agreed on the first revision of the rules on driving licenses since 2006. The new rules mean, among other things, that a disqualification applies throughout the EU.
If you lose your driving license in Denmark in the future, you will no longer be allowed to drive in other EU countries.
The union's member states agreed on this on Tuesday this week. Read more about the other rules here .
The new ban – and the other rules – can come into effect from 2026 at the earliest. But now they are cracking down hard on speeding offenders in particular.
Even though EU countries could not agree to introduce, for example, the Danish model of speeding, where by driving too fast you lose your car, your driving license and your freedom.
"This directive is an important step towards ensuring higher road safety," said MEP Matteo Ricci, who presented the report on the proposal.
If you lose your driving license in one country, all driving in the EU is prohibited.
The text of the proposal also states that the rules may be expanded to later also include less serious traffic violations.
Right now, however, the agreement must first be approved by both the European Council and the European Parliament, because something like a traffic ban applies in all 26 member states.
The new rules mean that a driving ban throughout the EU can be triggered if a driver is drunk, is responsible for serious traffic accidents and/or drives more than 50 km/h too fast.
In addition, EU countries have agreed to make the driving license available via a smartphone app, something that is already possible in Denmark.
This kind of solution has been opposed in Sweden. In any case, the Swedes have not wanted to spend money on the system, because the EU made it a requirement. And that requirement is coming now.
However, for EU countries to agree, the proposals for stricter legislation had to be drastically reduced.
For example, the EU would prohibit drivers under the age of 21 from driving between midnight and 6 a.m. on all days of the week.
The government in Brussels also had to drop a ban on letting young Swedes aged 15 drive the special A-tractors. That is, cars that are limited to 30 km/h. This is even though the new rules actually stipulate that the speed limit for A-tractors in particular be raised to 45 km/h.
The EU has also had to drop the idea of a special driving license for SUVs, and the idea of limiting the speed of cars according to driving license category.
