Cross-border traffic sanctions, the EU Court annuls the directive on exchange of information

The European Court of Justice stopped the Directive seeking to facilitate the exchange of of information concerning certain road traffic offences and the cross-border enforcement of the sanctions attached to them. Today, when we fail to stop at a red traffic light, or we drive too fast, when we are abroad, the Member State in which we have committed the offence can discover who we are and cash the related fine, thanks to the information obtained by the Italian data on vehicle registrations. According to the Court in Luxembourg, yet, the Directive was approved on incorrect legal basis, then it has been annulled. The Directive concerned eight of the most common traffic offences: speeding, non-use of a seat-belt, failing to stop at a red traffic light, drink-driving, driving under the influence of drugs, failing to wear a crash helmet, use of a forbidden lane and illegally using a mobile telephone.

The reason behind the annulment is essentially technical: according to the Court, the Directive was adopted on an inappropriate legal basis, referring to the articles of the EU Treaty dealing with police cooperation, while “both the aim and the content of the directive must be examined in order to determine whether it could validly be adopted” given that “the main or predominant aim of the directive is to improve road safety.”

The annulment, yet, “could have negative consequences” for EU transport policy. Then it has been decided to maintain its effects for a maximum of one-year period. The period for transposing the directive into national law expired on 7 November 2013: then, the Court considered that there are important grounds of legal certainty why the effects of that directive should be maintained until the entry into force, within a reasonable period of time — which may not exceed twelve months from the date of delivery of the judgement — of a new directive based on the correct legal basis.

The European Parliament and Council adopted the Directive on 25 October 2011, without using the correct legal basis as indicated by the Commission (that is, transport safety) on 19 March 2008, and using however as a legal basis the EU’s competence in the field of police cooperation.

In fact, taking the view that the directive had been adopted on the incorrect legal basis, the Commission brought annulment proceedings before the Court of Justice.