EU-wide plan to tackle law-breaking motorists

The plan would mean that drivers breaking drink-driving and speeding laws would be traced back to their own country and prosecuted, using electronic data exchange between national authorities.

European Union (EU) transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said the move was necessary because drivers of vehicles registered in another EU country almost always evaded prosecution because of problems identifying them or checking the vehicle's registered address.

Mr Barrot claimed "foreign" motorists were responsible for a disproportionate number of accidents on the roads. At any one time, foreign nationals made up 5% of the road traffic in EU member states, but were involved in up to 30% of speeding offences.

The Commissioner said if the EU was to achieve its long-standing target of halving the number of road fatalities recorded in 2001 by 2010, cross-border motorists evading justice had to be brought to book.

'No more impunity'

Under the Commission's proposal - which needs the agreement of EU governments - the new cross-border strategy would apply to four traffic offences which "imperil road safety" and were said to be involved in almost 75% of all road accidents and deaths.

As well as drink-driving and speeding, the offences included failing to wear a seatbelt and failing to stop at a red light.

The Commission said the EU-wide system would require national authorities to set up "appropriate administrative instruments" and agree a standard EU-wide "offence notification" to be sent to the identified driver in the official language of his or her country of residence.

Once approved, EU member states would have two years to set up the data exchange system and start operating it. Exchange of information would be carried out by national authorities in charge of vehicle registration documents - the DVLA in the UK's case.

Mr Barrot said he wanted to end the culture in which drivers on foreign plates felt able to break motoring laws of the country they were in "with impunity".

A UK Government spokesman said: "We support the principle of greater cross-border enforcement and will consider the Commission's proposal in detail in the coming weeks. Certainly, there is a need to ensure that people visiting the UK who put other's lives at risk on our roads should not escape punishment merely by fleeing the country."