ARCHIVED - Ready to negotiate in August: Update on driving licences for Brits in Spain
The British Embassy has a team ready to continue negotiations in summer, but many Spanish organisations will shut down for August
The British Embassy in Madrid has released another update on the status of negotiations to get British nationals resident in Spain back on the roads.
Since May 1, Brits with residency status in Spain for over six months and who use British driving licences have been forbidden from driving. Previously, the British Embassy in Madrid announced that by the end of July Brits should once again be able to exchange their UK driving licences for Spanish ones and drive using their British licences for a period of six more months following lengthy negotiations between Spain and the UK.
The negotiations are still in progress, and are being led by the Department of Transport (DfT) on the UK side and the Interior Ministry’s DVLA equivalent agency, Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT), on the Spanish side, in collaboration with The British Embassy in Spain and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In the latest update, issued on Friday July 22, the Embassy stated that they “don’t know for sure” when people will be able to drive again “because it is a live negotiation”, but assured that “the UK’s ambition is to reach a deal as soon as possible”.
“We genuinely are making progress each week,” they said in a statement on their Facebook page. “For example, this week we have agreed the main text, which means there are only the annexes outstanding. We recognise it has been frustratingly slow though.
“The important paperwork from Spain, which the Ambassador mentioned as outstanding last Friday, arrived this morning (22/07) and the UK team is now reviewing it as quickly as they can. Once everything is finalised, the agreement will then need legal and political approvals. We are committed to get this through the UK and Spanish systems quickly, however, as we’ve said before, we cannot make any guarantees.”
Further, the Embassy has revealed that they “have sought assurances from the Spanish Government that we can continue negotiating in August if needs be. On the UK side, we have a full team available to cover this negotiation over the summer because it is a top priority for us.”
However, many public institutions close down or drastically reduce their opening hours in summer, and so the prospects of a deal being reached before September now seem dim.
While the final details of the negotiation are hammered out, the Embassy has stated that the temporary measures to allow Brits to drive again cannot be reinstated now because of a refusal on the part of the Spanish authorities: “We have asked for this but Spain have not agreed to the request.”
For now, Brits resident in Spain who weren’t able to change their UK driving licences for Spanish ones before December 30, 2020 will have to continue to wait for news of if and when they can finally start driving again.
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Image: British Embassy in Madrid
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