As you may be aware or not, a European Directive (3rd European Driving Licence Directive) is to  be implemented across Europe by 19th January 2013 which includes a raft of changes to the motorcycle licence and testing requirements.
 
The directive was adopted in the European Parliament in 2006 and aims to harmonise licences across Europe and will see:
 
introducing enhanced security features on driving licences;
harmonising definitions of vehicle sub-categories and rules on the duration of the validity of a licence;
formal testing or training for younger motorcyclists wishing to progress to larger and more powerful machines;
introducing minimum standards for driving examiners; and aiming to ensure that no one can, at any one time, possess more than one licence issued by an EU or European Economic Area (EEA) state.

 
Northern Ireland will see the introduction of this directive.  A public consultation was undertaken by the DOE (Department of the Environment), which Right To Ride responded to in April 2010.
 
In January of this year the DOE published a Summary of Consultation Responses, the Department’s Response, and Next Steps including the drafting of the necessary legislation.
 
The DOE also stated that a communication plan would be put in place to keep stakeholders and interested parties informed of the changes being made and the implementation of the directive here in Northern Ireland.
 
At Right To Ride we can report that we attended on Tuesday 6th December, the first meeting of a stakeholder’s group which will not only advise members of the group of the implementation aspects of the Directive prior to 19th January 2013, but will be a two way communication on the issues.
 
The Stakeholder Group will:
 
help identify and resolve problems and issues arising from the introduction of the Directive;
help to quality assure the accuracy of information gathered by DVA in relation to the implementation of the Directive;
feed views to the policy making process;

Right To Ride’s Trevor Baird says, “Although we are a bit between a rock and a hard place as regards what the directive says must be implemented, there is some flexibility to get the best out of the directive for Northern Ireland riders. We welcome the opportunity to be part of this stakeholders group to put our views and those of the motorcycle community across.”
 
You can view our information on the directive at http://www.righttoride.co.uk/?page_id=964

 
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