Within the EU, negotiations on the so-called fourth driver’s license directive are in full swing.
Among other things, the directive contains a proposal that a digital driver’s license that is common to all member states within the EU should be introduced, reports Carup.
Driving license in the phone
A system of digital driving licenses already exists in Denmark, where you can have the driving license in an app on the phone, similar to the ID card that we Swedes can have in the BankID app today.
The validity period for the new digital driving licenses will be 15 years, compared to the 10-year interval that currently applies in Sweden.
After the age of 70, however, the interval changes, so the driver’s license must be renewed every five years.
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Possibility of a physical driver’s license
According to Carup, many people in Denmark think that the system with digital driving licenses works well.
However, such a system can, for understandable reasons, seem worrying to those who are not at ease with technology, or who do not have a smartphone.
However, there is a proposal that it should also be possible to get a physical driver’s license as a supplement, reports Carup. It is motivated by the fact that many people use the driver’s license as an identity document.
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Then all driving licenses may need to be replaced
Should the proposal go through, the EU’s directive states that the digital driver’s licenses must be implemented no later than four years after the decision is made, but the member states can choose to proceed faster than that.
Hungary, which this year holds the presidency of the EU, has announced that it wants to make a quick decision on the driver’s license directive. The goal is for a decision to be made before the New Year.
However, decision-making processes within the EU are complicated and can take a considerable amount of time. It is also not certain that the proposal for digital driving licenses will be voted through in the final directive.
– Unfortunately, it is not possible to say exactly when the decision will be made and whether the digital driver’s licenses will be included in the final decision. Then once the decision is in place, all member states will have a certain amount of time to implement the rules in their own national legislation and that time period is usually a number of years, says Mikael Anderssoninformation manager at the Swedish Transport Agency, to Carup.