The European Commission threatened Wednesday to take seven EU states to court for failing to pass laws easing the way for people with bad eyesight, diabetes or epilepsy to obtain driving licences.
Two European Union directives were amended in 2009 to adapt the fitness requirements for driving licences to scientific progress that now allows more people with impairments to safely get behind the wheel of a car. But Austria, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Slovenia have yet to change their national legislations to conform with the EU law. The European Commission gave the seven nations two months to inform the EU’s executive arm of steps taken to comply with the bloc’s laws.
If they fail to do so, the commission said they could be hauled before the European Court of Justice, which can impose hefty fines on nations that fail to abide by EU rules.
Brussels, April 6, 2011 (AFP)
