This year the driving licences of more than 425,000 motorist that are resident in Belgium will expire. Anyone that is late in renewing their licence and continues to drive can expect hefty a fine. In an effort to prevent this the Federal Transport Minister George Gilkinet (Francophone green Ecolo) says that reminder letters are being sent out to those whose driving licences are due to expire.
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Fines of up to 2,000 euro if you drive when your driving licence has expired
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Since 2013 a new driving license have been plastic and the same size as a credit or debit card issued by banks. The driving licences issued since 2013 are valid for 10 years. However, when the new licences were brought in it was unclear as to whether reminders would be sent out to their holders once they were due to expire.
Now the Federal Transport Minister says that this is the case and everyone whose licence is due for renewal will be contacted. The letters reminding motoists that their licence is due for renewal will be sent 2 months prior to the date on which their driving licence is due to expire.
Mr Gilkinet says that this will give people plenty of time to make the necessary arrangement and ensure that local town halls are not overrun by people all wanting to renew driving licences at the same time. On Monday 2 May letters were sent out to those whose licences are due to expire in July.
"Fines are out of proportion."
If you drive around with an expired driving license, you risk the same penalty as if you were caught on the road without any driving license at all. Fines are currently as much as 2,000 euro. Mr Gilkinet believes that the law should be admended. "It is absurd that people have to pay such high fines if their driving license has expired.
The Flemish Christian democrats’ transport expert Jef Van den Bergh agrees "It is of course disproportionate. An act of administrative carelessness, which must of course be punished, is hardly the same as driving without a valid license if your driving licence has been revoked after you had deliberately committed a very serious motoring offence."