Press and Information Division
PRESS RELEASE No 33/04
29 April 2004
Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-476/01
Felix Kapper
A MEMBER STATE IS NOT ENTITLED TO REFUSE TO RECOGNISE A DRIVING LICENCE
ISSUED BY ANOTHER MEMBER STATE ON THE GROUND THAT, ACCORDING TO THE INFORMATION
AVAILABLE TO THE FIRST MEMBER STATE, THE HOLDER HAD NOT, WHEN THE LICENCE
WAS ISSUED, TAKEN UP NORMAL RESIDENCE IN THE MEMBER STATE WHICH ISSUED THE
LICENCE
A Member State may no longer refuse to recognise the validity of any
driving licence subsequently issued by another Member State where, in the first Member
State, the previous licence issued to the holder was withdrawn or cancelled but
the ban imposed on obtaining a new licence in that Member State has
already expired.
The Court accordingly held that the principle of mutual recognition of driving licences
established in the directive precludes a Member State (A) from refusing to recognise
a driving licence issued by another Member State (B) on the ground that,
according to the information available to the first State (A), the holder of
the licence in question had, at the date of issue of the licence,
established his normal residence in that State (A) and not in the issuing
Member State (B).
The Court next held that when a Netherlands licence was issued to Mr Kapper
on 11 August 1999 he was no longer subject to a ban on applying
to the competent authorities in Germany for the issue of a new licence.
The directive permits a Member State (A) to refuse to recognise the validity
of any driving licence issued by another Member State (B) if the holder
is, in the first State (A), subject to a measure which restricts, suspends, withdraws
or cancels the right to drive. That provision is, by its very nature,
to be strictly interpreted and may not be used by a Member State
as a basis for refusing indefinitely to recognise, in relation to a person
who has been the object in its territory of a measure withdrawing or
cancelling a previous licence issued by that State, the validity of any licence
that may subsequently be issued to him by another Member State.
Where a temporary ban on obtaining a new licence with which the measure
in question was coupled has already expired in a Member State, the directive
precludes that Member State from continuing to refuse to recognise the validity of
any driving licence subsequently issued to the person concerned by another Member State.
To allow a Member State to rely on its national provisions in order
to refuse indefinitely to recognise a licence issued by another Member State would
be fundamentally incompatible with the principle of the mutual recognition of driving licences
which is the linchpin of the system established by the directive.
Unofficial document, for media use only, which does not bind the Court of Justice. Available languages: DE, EN, FR, IT. The full text of the judgment can be found on the internet (www.curia.eu.int ). In principle it will be available from midday CET on the day of delivery. For additional information please contact Christopher Fretwell. Tel: (00352) 4303 3355 Fax: (00352) 4303 2731 |
Council Directive 91/439/EEC of 29 July 1991 on driving licences (OJ 1991
L 237, p. 1).