The EU wants to introduce an EU driving license!

I can get behind that, living in the mountains in Central Europe, we inevitably get the same drivers. At best, they get stuck and create traffic.

I had a Swedish (I’m not swedish, but my first EU style license was issued there) license in NYC and had it renewed through the consulate with laughable little hassle. When I moved to UK (pre-Brexit), again, the swap was smooth. I religiously believe that when I move back to EU, I’ll be able to get an EU license back (unless I hit an age trigger).

I actually think the current EU license is awesome. I don’t dispute the underlying criteria for issuing could be improved, but post-issue, it’s pretty great today.

That must be country specific. Some countries allow renewing your licence where you live.

Which is stupidly expensive and redundant for no good reason

EU isn’t equivalent to the states (yet). It’s a loose’ish unions of nations. Passports are nation-issued, as are most professional credentials, but everything is recognised intra-union. In US (and Australia), passports are issued centrally, states are more like a local subdivision, irrelevant abroad.

US driving licenses are admittedly state issued. I suspect it’s more about violation points than anything else. And there’s a drive towards a federal format there as well.

(Sorry if I’m simplifying here.)

You are correct, this is definetly not that big of a deal right now. My license is already valid across EU. However, the process for this has been going on at the background for quite a while and the end goal is to improve road safety and have common rules in all of EU. Increased road safety is obviously a good thing and it also helps people to move around if they want to, so even if it's not the biggest problems at hand it's still improvement across the union.

Even in US, the licenses are issued by the states.

The only thing i would care about is that you could get a new one issued easily in whichever EU state you are, rather than having to go back to where you first got it. I am surprised that stuff isn't standardized yet, because to me my license looks as standardized as my ID-card

I'm still at awe how we are living in post-reddit times, where a title can just be changed. Just like that. How many untrue titles and straight lies were posted back then on Reddit and it was just accepted as a fact that once a post ist up, it can never change its holy title. Like it were not technical possible. They decided to feed uneditable lies and florished from that. BUUUH REDDIT.

my2Cent

My bad, let me change the title. Thanks for pointing it out!

The title is a bit ambiguous. It is about a _driving license_, not a software license (such as the already existing European Union Public License) or any other type of license.

There already is an EU driver's license. What they're proposing is a *digital* driver's license.

Can they standardize some kind of ice road driving experience requirement if you are driving somewhere it gets cold in the winter? It's a constant problem with people who have never seen snow before racing around like maniacs on slippery ice roads in the Nordics, often with summer tyres. Both cars and heavy lorries from central and southern Europe often crash in the winter, and they're always surprised at ice being more difficult to drive on than plain asphalt. There's a reason it's an obligatory part of driving education in the north.

As I read it, at least the physical license will remain issued by member states. It's a standardisation of license rules and an app (which is probably offered by EU).

(Personally, I'm not sure this is all that important in light of the problems EU is otherwise faced with, and I really hope licenses will remain a national document -- recall when Brexit Britain under Johnson didn't recognise EU in a diplomatic role since it isn't a "country" -- but so be it.)