21.4.2012

Official Journal of the European Union

C 118/4

(Case C-467/10) (<span class="super">1</span>)

(Directives 91/439/EEC and 2006/126/EC - Mutual recognition of driving licences - Refusal of a Member State to recognise, in respect of a person who does not satisfy the physical and mental requirements for driving under the laws of that Member State, the validity of a driving licence issued by another Member State)

2012/C 118/06

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Party to the main proceedings

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Landgericht Gießen — Interpretation of Articles 1(2) and 8(4) of Council Directive 91/439/EEC of 29 July 1991 on driving licences (OJ 1991 L 237, p. 1) and of Articles 2(1) and 11(4) of Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on driving licences (OJ 2006 L 403, p. 18) — Mutual recognition of driving licences — Refusal of a Member State to recognise, in respect of a person who does not meet the physical and mental requirements for driving under the laws of that Member State, the validity of a driving licence issued by another Member State

Operative part of the judgment

1.The combined provisions of Articles 1(2) and 8(2) and (4) of Council Directive 91/439/EEC of 29 July 1991 on driving licences and those of Articles 2(1) and 11(4) of Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on driving licences must be interpreted as precluding legislation of a host Member State which allows that State to refuse to recognise, within its territory, a driving licence issued by another Member State in the case where the holder of that licence has not been made subject, by that host Member State, to any measure within the meaning of Article 8(4) of Directive 91/439 or the second subparagraph of Article 11(4) of Directive 2006/126 but the issue of a first driving licence in that State was refused to that person on the ground that he did not satisfy, under that State’s legislation, the physical and mental requirements for the safe driving of a motor vehicle.

2.Those combined provisions must be interpreted as not precluding legislation of a host Member State which allows that State to refuse to recognise, within its territory, a driving licence issued in another Member State in the case where it is established, on the basis of indisputable information emanating from the issuing Member State, that the holder of the driving licence did not satisfy the normal residence condition laid down in Article 7(1)(b) of Directive 91/439 and in Article 7(1)(e) of Directive 2006/126 at the time when that licence was issued. In that respect, the fact that that information is conveyed, not directly but only indirectly, by the issuing Member State to the competent authorities of the host Member State in the form of a notification by third parties, is not, in itself, such as to preclude that information from being capable of being regarded as emanating from the issuing Member State, in so far as it comes from an authority of that Member State.

It is a matter for the referring court to determine whether information obtained in circumstances such as those in the dispute in the main proceedings can be classified as information emanating from the issuing Member State and, if necessary, to evaluate that information and to assess, taking into account all the facts of the dispute before it, whether it constitutes indisputable information demonstrating that the holder of the licence was not normally resident in the territory of that latter State at the time when his driving licence was issued.

Language of the case: German

*

(1) OJ C 328, 4.12.2010.