Red Tape Hot Box on driver's license renewals

Have you ever thought about changing your driver's license (issued by a European Union country) to a Polish one? Well, if you did, don't be surprised if you come across contradictory policies which you might not completely understand. On many occasions, even civil servants have trouble comprehending them.

Polish licenses are now similar to the ones issued in EU countries since amendments were passed to unify their designs. Staff at the infrastructure ministry say that the country's regulations and those of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic of 1968 permit EU licenses to be exchanged for Polish licenses for a small fee without a translation.

The local administrative office, however, demands that driver's licenses be translated into Polish, based on the fact that the constitution of 1945-1946 says that "the (one and only) official language of Poland is Polish." Therefore, local authorities argue that all documents submitted to them, including licenses, must conform to the language standard.

Nevertheless, the infrastructure ministry maintains that EU driver's licenses should be exchanged without a translation, though it cannot force the local administrative authorities to do so. The ministry advises license applicants to appeal the decision of the local office, or more so, not even to file their applications with the local authorities.

Thus, driver's license applicants often have second thoughts when they encounter such contradictions. Why should they have to appeal this matter when the local administration is selectively following the regulations issued by the infrastructure ministry? It's ludicrous to think that the ministry can't even enforce its own regulations.

The translation of EU driver's licenses is an unnecessary expense since there are only 15 or so words and phrases that are the same on Polish licenses. When the country (hopefully) joins the union next year, EU directive 91/439/EEC will make EU licenses fully valid here.

But for now, one option for applicants is to simply not exchange their EU licenses and drive here semi-legally. After all, the police are quite lenient when they encounter a driver with a EU license. Usually...

Red tape bugging you? Tell Mateusz about it at matdem@poczta.onet.pl.