The proposal from the French Green Party to update the European driver’s permit is meeting strong opposition. On Thursday, the German Green Party responded that “a night driving ban for young drivers and an extra driving license for SUVs completely miss people’s reality and are nonsense”.

Karima Delli handed in the proposal from the French Green side. The long and complex text states that every vehicle between 1 800 and 3 500 kilos should be piloted by someone holding a B+ permit. The proposal laid down at last Monday’s Transport Committee meeting has no framework for car body types.

‘Ambitious text’

Delli wants a two-year trial period before novices can drive SUVs and further demands a threshold age of 21 years. “In terms of road safety, they are more likely to be subject to collisions than light passenger cars, with far more serious consequences,” she proposed. Delli added that it concerns a “far-reaching, ambitious text”.

This rule targets the SUV category but would also draw in almost all-electric vehicles. A Tesla Model 3 would demand a B+ license, and even Volvo’s newest cross-over – an exercise in lightweight – exceeds the proposed limit. It’s worth noting that a B+ permit already exists within the current scheme but applies to trailers for up to 3,5 tons.

No faster than 130 km/hour

Delli’s draft also includes a ban on night driving, an EU-wide points system for the driving permit, and a complete ban on alcohol consumption for youngsters who are driving, accompanied by mandatory health and readiness check-ups for elderly drivers to have their licenses renewed.

The European MPs are looking for measures to reduce the death toll on public roads to zero by 2050. A final appendix concerned the maximum speed on highways across member states, which shouldn’t exceed 130 km/hour.

The latter did, of course, cause a stir in Germany, which still allows for unlimited speeding on designated stretches of highway. In the press, the German representatives didn’t fail to condemn Delli’s proposal.

‘Ivory Towers’

“The latest proposals on the EU Driving Licence Directive from Brussels dramatically show how far away some Green politicians in their ivory towers are from the problems and needs of ordinary people,” commented Thomas Bareiss, speaker for transport policy for the Christian party CDU/CSU in the German parliament.

The Christian party is a reputed contender of the Green Party, but the German left side also slashed the proposal. “This nonsense is not the position of the German Greens, nor of the German Greens in the European Parliament,” said Omid Nouripour, head of the German Green Party, to Augsburger Allgemeine on Thursday.

Finally, Delli also proposed to delete the passages for making truck driving for 17-year-olds possible under the condition of supervision of an adult, a measure Germany also favors.