This Eucaris system normally enables cross-border exchange of vehicle and driving licence data in the EU. As a result, since 2016, offences committed in one country by foreign drivers can be collected in the other country. At least: as long as this data is forwarded. Technical problem Italy now has a problem, because the Netherlands, Germany and Austria have denied the country access to Eucaris a few months ago, meaning that offenders from these countries risk going free. According to the Italian Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini, the blocking of the platform is simply due to a technical problem. He announced that the Eucaris platform would be reactivated soon. But because the system has been down for months, it seems that Dutch holidaymakers who committed a traffic offence in Italy during the summer are avoiding their fines. These are speeding tickets, parking fines and other traffic offences. Officially, the Italian government has 365 days to collect traffic fines, but the question is whether this will also happen with the fines that have been imposed in recent months during the blockade of the system. Fine income for local government In Italy, not all fines benefit the national government. A significant portion of the violations in villages and towns end up in the local treasury. According to Auto Motor und Sport, the ‘blockade’ means a major financial loss for the Italian communities. A South Tyrolean politician and lawyer called the impact on the tourist region great: “In the community of Merano alone, 4,000 uncollectible fines have been collected in recent months, totaling more than 230,000 euros.” According to her, this not only means discrimination against Italian drivers, who are immediately fined for every violation, but also a great loss of money for the affected municipalities. “And then there is also the problem with rental cars used by foreign citizens,” the politician continued. The landlords would often provide the municipalities with no or incorrect information about those who have committed traffic violations. The background is the current legal regulation, which exempts landlords from any liability for fines.
Source: www.autoweek.nl
