The European parliament has approved a pan-European driving licence, to be introduced in 2013 and fully phased-in by 2032. This will replace the individual licence schemes of each member state and it is hoped that it will improve road safety as well as security.
The new licence will need to be renewed, perhaps as often as every 10 years. Licences to drive lorries and buses will need to be renewed every five years, and motorcyclists will not be able to ride large-engined bikes until they have completed a probationary period on less powerful machines.
The EU-wide database will be used to ensure that drivers banned in one country will not be able to obtain a new licence in another. Individual member states can opt, however, whether to issue the credit card-style licences with embedded microchips containing data on the driver.
