This is our reaction to the report of TV NOVA “Issuing of Drivers Licences to Foreigners”, published on “Televizní noviny” on 20 April 2005.  The reporter, Lucie Alexová, gave inaccurate information, which significantly distorts the real state of the matter and damages the good name of the Ministry of Transport.
 
At issue are the following wrongful claims:
 
1. The Ministry of Transport changed its approach as of January.  The reporter said, literally: “Now, [the Ministry] has surprisingly turned.”
 
That claim is wrong, as directive 91/439/EEC, which became a part of our legal order when the Czech Republic joined the EU, clearly states how the transportation authority is to proceed.  Until this January, however, certain authorities interpreted the directive differently.  The Ministry has therefore published a guideline which unifies the approach of transportation authorities.  This is a standard procedure applied by a central body of state administration.
 
2. The statements of the Ministry’s press spokesman, Marcela Švejnohová, published in the report: “It has been issued pursuant to applicable laws”; and, “It is a recommendation”; are not contradictory, as they have been taken out of context.  The said guideline of the Ministry of Transport has really been issued pursuant to the applicable law and is to serve as a recommendation for the employees of the authority, as in the situation at hand; it is the only interpretation possible.  We do not agree with the steps taken by the Pilsen Regional Authority mentioned above.
 
3. Municipal authorities in North Bohemian say: “The Ministry’s instruction is our command.”
 
This is not a revolutionary finding of the staff of the Pilsen Regional Authority, as this so-called “instruction” (properly guideline) was not, and is not to be, the law, it only contains the legal interpretation of the text of the Czech Law and European Community Law.

 

But it is not a Regulation, either, as it was erroneously presented in the report, by the lawyer of the Pilsen Regional Authority, Roman Kočí.
 
The aim of the European Directive on Driver’s Licences was to ensure the safety of road traffic.  It was issued primarily in order to prevent the circumvention of the ban on driving motor vehicles in a certain member state by the person getting a driver’s licence in another member state.  The directive therefore, in order to ensure the safety of road traffic, stipulates that European Union member states may grant the authorisation to drive only to someone who has his customary residence in their country, which lasts, due to the person’s personal ties to the land, usually at least 185 days in a calendar year.

 

The said rule was often breached in the Czech Republic.  The Ministry of Transportation therefore issued a guideline in January 2005, in which it re-evaluated the hitherto applicable interpretation of the said legal regulations and presented its conclusions externally, in order that the same interpretation may be applied by each of the transportation authorities.  The current legal interpretation is thus identical with the application of the said provision in other member states.