Today, the European Commission presented a proposal for simplifying car registration rules in the EU. The Commission considers vehicle registration problems to be among the main difficulties European citizens face in their daily lives and seeks to improve the regulatory framework for this problem.
The European Commission's memo on the proposal provides some interesting facts and figures, such as:
'- There are more than 300 million registered cars, buses, trucks and vans
in Europe. Most of these will not be concerned by this proposal which
concerns only the cars, buses, trucks and vans that frequently go
across the borders within the EU. It is estimated that 3.5 million vehicles are transferred to another Member State per year.
- In the period 2000-2011, the Commission handled 114 official complaints
about car registration problems while the Court of Justice delivered 17
judgments and orders about car registration.
- Three quarters of the public authorities say they contact the
registration authorities in the Member State, where the motor vehicle
was previously registered, in order to get information needed for
re-registration. Moreover all respondents' confirm having problems when
dealing with registration authorities.'
The Commission's proposal introduces the principle that a car should be registered in the EU country where its owner lives. Other Member States may not ask her or him to register the
car with them, even if the car owner spends a longer period there. According to the proposal,
the same principle applies for companies: cars, buses, vans and trucks should be
registered in the EU country where the main office is established.
Furthermore, the proposal is considered to be beneficial for the tourism industry: According to the Commission's expectations, car-rental companies will save substantially under the new rules, as they will be able to
transfer cars to another EU country during the holiday periods without
re-registration. This could result in lower prices for renting a car during the holidays.
See the European Commission's press release and website for further information.
