The UK Government has just issued 28 planning documents setting out what will happen in various sectors in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit. Attached are the two that relate to driving in the EU and passports. For example, after March 2019 if there’s no deal, your driving licence may no longer be valid by itself when driving in the EU, the documents says. If you move to another EU country to live, you may not be able to exchange your licence after the UK has left the EU!
I’m not sure the world is ready for a granny wearing beads and a kaftan… oh… and somewhere I still have the feathered necklace that completes the ensemble…
The issue of driving licences was discussed on SF a while ago.
Having to apply for an IDP or make sure that there is a minimum of 6 months left on a passport when travelling is hardly the end of the world.
But significant disruption to the free flow of goods across the UK border has the potential to be much more serious.
I still think that the most likely outcome is that everyone will consume sufficient quantities of fudge to kick the really hard decisions into the long grass of the transition period and we’ll leave on the 29th with not much difference to be noticed on the 30th.
But if we bomb out having not reached agreement, then refuse to pay the monies that we are already committed to I can’t see that the EU would be leaning over backwards to fix our self-inflicted problems post Brexit.
There doesn’t seem to be any point in chasing the Nantes driving licence centre from what others have said. If you send it by recorded delivery and it’s less than a year since you sent it then should be fine eventually.
Of course the real problem with the driving licence thing - and not at all mentioned in the government document is that commercial driver’s licences don’t have the IDP “get out” so with no deal British hauliers will not legally be able to drive on the continent (and the certification for their vehicles will cease also).
This is serious, and a significant omission from the government paper. It’s also not news - it was discussed here (and in some of the more enlightened media which is where I picked it up) back in February or so.
Don’t know - not a domain expert here but the current certification is done to EU standards and we will cease to be a competent country to check drivers and vehicles to those standards if we crash out with no deal.
