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‘An avoidable nightmare’: How UK licence holders in Spain are affected by driving debacle

Unable to work, to get to medical appointments, to collect family from the airport or even to shop. Madrid-based journalist Simon Hunter talks to some of the UK driving licence holders in Spain who have been prevented from legally taking to the roads since May 1st.

Published: 28 May 2022 09:46 CEST

'An avoidable nightmare': How UK licence holders in Spain are affected by driving debacle

A Renault 4 parked in Granada, with the majestic Alhambra in the background.Since May 1st, UK licence holders residing in Spain for more than 6 months can no longer drive. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)

It’s a situation in which hundreds if not thousands of UK driving licence holders in Spain find themselves as negotiations between the Spanish and British authorities drag on over the exchange of vehicle data.

The latest weekly update by the British Embassy in Madrid on May 27th spoke of the “good progress towards an agreement” being made, but for the people who have been unable to drive in Spain for the past month, patience is wearing thin.

“I fell off a ladder the other day, I am now on two crutches and have a cast on my leg,” explained David Dawson, 73, who lives in Llanos del Peral, Almería.

“We live in a rural community, and right now I’m unable to walk and my wife is unable to drive our car. This licence business needs sorting out.”

The situation has arisen as a result of Brexit. Before the UK left the EU, British vehicle data was shared with Member States.

But Spain is now requesting access to data for UK-registered vehicles who commit traffic offences while on Spanish roads via an automated system, as part of a formal agreement for licence exchange for UK residents in Spain.

One of the sticking points in the negotiations has been that the British authorities want to keep the two issues separate.

A deadline for when UK licences would no longer be valid for residents who have been in Spain for more than six months was extended five times as talks continued but eventually expired on April 30th.

Those left with an invalid licence can now either take a new driving test in Spain or wait for an agreement between the two sides.

David Dawson’s story is similar to those of many who are in this situation, whereby through no fault of his own, he was unable to swap the document.

He told The Local that he and his wife arrived in Spain in December 2020 and tried to apply to exchange their licences. But their lawyer did not do as instructed and they missed the deadline as a result.

“Our nearest shop is around six kilometres away, the nearest large town is 20 kilometres away,” he said. “You can only imagine the difficulties we now face, with, worryingly, no solution in place. The whole issue is an avoidable nightmare.”

“Ariadne,” 62, who preferred not to supply her real name, suffered a similar experience.

“Our gestoría misinformed us regarding access to our NIE,” she explained, in reference to the Spanish tax identification number. “We were told that we didn’t have it in time to change our licence.

But it seems we already had access to the numbers and could have swapped it. Through no fault of our own, but rather Spanish bureaucracy, we are now stuck two years later as residents who are unable to drive.”

Both Ariadne and her husband are disabled, and she said they would be unable to take a test in Spanish.

“It’s a desperate situation impacting on our quality of life,” she complained.

“We moved to Mallorca for an easier life, now it’s too hard.”

Maggie Parkinson, 51, who lives in Alicante, managed to apply for the licence exchange in September 2020, but was later told that the paperwork had been lost.

“I started working as a home carer earlier this year and I now have to give this up as I am not allowed to drive,” she told The Local.

“It’s not only affecting me but also my clients. We moved to Spain to explore the beautiful country and now we can’t. We need to continue with the extension whilst negotiations are still in place,” she argued.

The problem is not just affecting UK nationals, however. While Irish passport holders living in Spain have been spared the issues that Brexit brought with it, if they happen to hold a UK licence they find themselves in the same boat. Even Spaniards are suffering.

Sergio Cano, 34, is originally from Mallorca and obtained his driving licence while he was living in London.

In 2016 he moved back to Spain and only became aware of the changes in 2020. He missed the deadline to swap his British document for a Spanish one, and is now living in Madrid but unable to take to the roads.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said. “If they had told me we are not going to get an agreement, I would already have started the other way to try and get a driving test.”

He added that he doesn’t want to waste the time or pay the hundreds of euros that doing the test will cost to get a licence he already holds.

A spokesperson from Spain’s DGT traffic authority expressed bewilderment to The Local as to why the UK authorities have not been willing to put in a similar information-exchange system to the one that existed before, but added that a solution should be on the horizon in a matter of weeks.

This was echoed by a spokesperson from the British embassy, who told The Local: “We are in intensive talks with the Spanish government to reach an agreement to swap UK driving licences for Spanish ones.

We are hopeful that an agreement will be reached in the coming weeks and remain fully committed to making this happen.”

In the meantime, UK licence holders in Spain will have to find alternative, and often costly, ways to get around.

If you want to sign the official petition calling for the mutual recognition of UK and Spanish driving licences, click here. At 10,000 signatures, the UK government will respond to this petition.

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INTERVIEW: 'A lot of people think Brexit is done, but it's not for Brits in Europe'

In the early days of 2021, after the United Kingdom had left the EU and completed the final stage of Brexit, many British citizens returned to their home countries in Europe only to face a grilling at the border.

Though the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) technically guaranteed their right to live and work in the countries they’d settled in before Brexit, there was widespread confusion about these fundamental rights and many were treated like new arrivals.

Over time, the chaos at the airports subsided as border officials and airlines were given clearer guidance on the treatment of Brits. But three years later, a number of Brits who live on the continent still face problems when it comes to proving their post-Brexit rights.

This was the reason campaign group British in Europe decided to set up their new EU-funded ICE project. Starting this year in March, it aims to build valuable connections between UK citizens abroad and mentor the next generation of civil rights advocates around the continent. The acronym stands for ‘Inform, Empower, Connect’ and the project’s organisers describe it as “the first project of its kind”.

“It’s a completely innovative project – especially the fact that it’s across so many countries,” Jane Golding, chair of British in Europe and one of the project’s founders, told The Local.

Bringing together groups from 11 EU member states, the project aims to train up volunteers to understand both the Withdrawal Agreement and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as learning skills like advocacy and communication, using real-life civil rights cases that are referred to British in Europe.

“The ultimate goal is to amplify the messages across the wider group,” said Golding. “You start with the volunteers, they go back to their groups, then the people that we train, they go back and train people. Then they pass on that knowledge to the wider groups, on their Facebook accounts and through social media, and hopefully it all snowballs, not just in their countries but across the EU.”

‘Far-reaching repercussions’

So many years after Brexit, it’s hard to believe that there’s still a need for a project like ICE that empowers Brits to protect their rights. Indeed, the future of groups like British in Europe and regional groups like British in Germany and British in Spain felt uncertain just a year or two ago.

But Golding says there are still serious issues cropping up for Brits in several countries around Europe – they just have a different quality to the problems that arose at the start.

“In some ways it’s needed even more because as we predicted right at the beginning, at the first stage of implementation, you’ve got the more routine cases,” she explained.

“What we’re seeing now is not as many cases, but when the cases come up, they’re complex. They can have such far-reaching repercussions on people’s lives. And of course, memories start to fade. A lot of people think Brexit is already done, but it’s not.”

Volunteers in British in Europe ICE project

The volunteers of the British in Europe ICE project pose for a photo at the kick-off meeting in Brussels on May 21st, 2024. Photo courtesy of Jane Golding

Though the rights set out in the Withdrawal Agreement apply across the continent, different countries have taken different approaches to implementing them.

That means that while in Germany, for example, UK citizens simply had to declare that they lived in the country, people in neighbouring Denmark had to apply for their rights.

This led to a notorious situation in Denmark in which as many as 2,000 Brits were threatened with deportation after not applying in time or completing the right application process. According to Golding, this had a lot to do with the fact that people who arrived in 2020 weren’t given the same information as other UK migrants who arrived before.

In Sweden, meanwhile, the situation is still difficult for many Brits who lived there prior to Brexit.

“There have been issues with an anomalously high numbers of refusals compared to other countries, and they seem to be taking a very strict approach on late applications,” Golding explained.

Portugal has been another difficult case. Although the country opted for a declaratory system where Brits could simply exchange old residence documents for a new ID card after Brexit, reports suggest that the authorities have taken years to issue these cards, leaving many of the some 34,000 Brits in the country in limbo.

“While people are still waiting to have their status confirmed and have their card in their hand, it’s difficult to access a whole range of services, like health services, or applying for jobs or dealing with the authorities, or even going to the bank,” Golding said. “All of these problems just affect people’s lives.”

A French border guard checks a passport at the border

A French border guard checks a passport at the border. Photo by DENIS CHARLET / AFP

There are also concerns about the EU’s new exit and entry system (EES), due to come into force in October, which is based on biometric documentation.

“We still do not have clear data on how many people in declaratory countries like Germany, where it wasn’t compulsory to apply for the card, don’t actually have a card,” Golding said. “How is that going to play out if it’s a document-based digitalised system?”

A lack of support

In the immediate aftermath of Brexit, funding from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was still available to support NGOs in Europe helping Brits with their migration and civil rights issues. But that temporary funding soon expired, leaving groups like British in Europe largely on their own.

“The whole point is people’s lives change at very different paces,” Golding said. “And now this project is really going to start to pick up some of those cases and report on those issues, which is really crucial and exciting for the precedent that it sets, and it’s very clearly necessary still, because people don’t just sort their lives in the 18 months that the FCDO chose to supply that funding.”

This feeling of being left alone and increasingly isolated from the UK is one that many Brits in Europe have felt in the aftermath of Brexit. But the upcoming UK election on July 4th could be a game-changer.

This time, following a change in the law, Brits who have lived abroad for more than 15 years will be able to vote for the first time.

Polling station in the UK

A polling station in the UK. Photo by Elliott Stallion on Unsplash

When it comes to the election, the message from British in Europe is clear: “Make your voice count now, make your vote count, make sure you use it,” Golding said.

With the June 18th registration deadline fast approaching, BiE is advising UK citizens abroad to apply for a proxy vote as soon as possible, rather than relying on a postal vote from abroad. Since the 15-year rule was abolished on January 16th, more than 100,000 British citizens have registered to vote, according to official statistics. It is unclear how many were registered before the change in the law.

With an estimated 5.5 million Brits currently living abroad – 1.3 million of whom are in the EU – this could have a significant impact on the electoral landscape, Golding says. But most significantly, the change is creating a feeling of connection and belonging that wasn’t there before.

Nurturing this sense of belonging is one of the main goals of ICE.

With these bridges being built, British in Europe hopes to create a network of support that spans across borders.

“Now we’ve met. We’re going to meet,” said Golding. “We know we’re going to meet again in Berlin in October and then we’ll meet again in the new year in 2025 as well. It means a huge amount because even British in Europe, our steering team, we’ve only met physically three times.”

This opens up the possibility of people sharing their knowledge from country to country, Golding explained.

“There is crossover and the reassurance of having that EU wide view and knowing that you’re not alone and knowing that in this country, we managed to get this solution,” she said. “And then you can go back and say to the authorities in your country, well, in that country they did that – all of that helps. It’s really good.”

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