{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-directive-2020-612/introduction",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-directive-2020-612/introduction.json",
  "legislation": "eudr/2020/612",
  "legislation_title": "Commission Directive (EU) 2020/612 of 4 May 2020 amending Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on driving licences (Text with EEA relevance)",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-directive-2020-612",
  "path": "introduction",
  "kind": "introduction",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Introductory text",
  "text": "Commission Directive (EU) 2020/612\nof 4 May 2020\namending Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on driving licences\n(Text with EEA relevance)\nTHE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,\nHaving regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,\nHaving regard to Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on driving licences, and in particular Article 8 thereof,\nWhereas:\n(1)\nThe existing specific provisions concerning the Member States’ possibility to decide that no restriction to vehicles with automatic transmission shall be recorded on the driving licence of holders of a driving licence for vehicles of category C, CE, D and DE should be extended to holders of driving licences for vehicles of category BE, C1, C1E, D1 and D1E when the applicant already holds a driving licence obtained on a vehicle with manual transmission in at least one of the following categories: B, BE, C, CE, C1, C1E, D, DE, D1 or D1E.\n(2)\nThat extension should be carried out in the light of technical progress, in particular in order to take into account the development and increasing use, in the transport industry, of more modern, safer and less polluting vehicles equipped with a wide range of semi-automatic, automatic or hybrid transmission systems. Furthermore, the simplification of the existing restrictions on driving automatic vehicles would reduce the administrative and financial burden on stakeholders, including SMEs and micro-enterprises operating in the field of road transport.\n(3)\nThe requirements for test vehicle motorcycles of category A2 to be used during the test of skills and behaviour need to be adapted to technical progress, in particular to combustion engine and chassis development and to the wider use of electric motorcycles. The adaptation of the technical specifications for category A2 test vehicles should also ensure that applicants are tested on vehicles that are representative of the category for which the driving licence would be issued.\n(4)\nDirective 2006/126/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.\n(5)\nIn accordance with the Joint Political Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member States and the Commission on explanatory documents, Member States have undertaken to accompany, in justified cases, the notification of their transposition measures with one or more documents explaining the relationship between the components of a directive and the corresponding parts of national transposition instruments.\n(6)\nThe measures provided for in this Directive are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee on driving licences,\nHAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:",
  "extent": "E+W+S+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "OJ L 403, 30.12.2006, p. 18."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "OJ C 369, 17.12.2011, p. 14."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudr/2020/612/introduction",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-11-01T15:21:23.380115+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}