The Diplomat
The agreement between Spain and the United Kingdom for the reciprocal recognition and exchange of driving licenses, as well as the exchange of information on traffic offenses in the field of road safety, began to be provisionally applied in its entirety on June 21, following the corresponding Exchange of Notes.
The agreement, approved last March 14 by the Council of Ministers and adopted the following day in Madrid in the form of an Exchange of Verbal Notes, puts an end to the successive extensions applied for the exchange of licenses between both countries that had been applied since the end of the transitional period foreseen in the Agreement for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
With this agreement, holders of a valid and current driving license issued by either of the two States will be able to request the exchange of their equivalent driving license where they have taken up residence, without being subject to any additional practical or theoretical test requirements and in accordance with the equivalence tables between the license categories of both countries.
The text establishes that all valid permits or licenses of current residents issued prior to its entry into force may be exchanged, while for permits issued after its entry into force it will be an indispensable requirement for access to the exchange that the permits have been issued in the country where the applicant has his legal residence.
In addition, under the agreement, Spain and the United Kingdom undertake to provide each other with information on the details of vehicles and their owners for the purpose of investigating traffic offenses related to road safety, especially in cases of speeding, not wearing a seat belt, failing to stop at a red light, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving under the influence of drugs, not wearing a protective helmet, driving in a forbidden lane or illegal use of cell phones.
In the Exchange of Notes, the British Embassy proposed last June 16 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the agreement be provisionally applied in its entirety as from June 21 and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs agreed to the proposal on June 20, as published last Friday in the Official State Gazette (BOE).
