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At a time when the fixed penalty system under attack because it assumes guilt before conviction, the British Government has now agreed that we peasants should no longer have protection from foreign countries fixed fine systems and will now actively assist other countries to collect their fixed fines.

Telegraph | News | New EU law means no escape for drivers caught speeding abroad: “New EU law means no escape for drivers caught speeding abroad
By David Rennie in Brussels
(Filed: 25/02/2005)

The days when motorists could pick up speeding tickets and other fines on the Continent, then flee for the safety of home, were brought to an end yesterday.

In a major expansion of pan-European law enforcement, EU justice ministers adopted new rules that will oblige member states to enforce each other’s fines and” and court-ordered financial penalties for criminal conduct.

Under the rules adopted in Brussels, a tourist given a fine or fixed penalty notice for any amount over £50 while in another EU country, could face the shock of a court summons, or policeman on the doorstep, long after returning.

The change, proposed by Britain with French and Swedish backing, will mean the authorities in each member state being obliged to seek collection of any fine or penalty over £50, as soon as they are informed that one of their nationals or residents owes the money.

British officials stressed that the main aim was to allow major court judgments and fines to be collected, and to close the “loophole” whereby they are ignored with impunity, simply by fleeing to another EU state.

It will not be a defence to argue that the crime committed while overseas is not a crime back home, for example because drink-driving or speed limits vary from country to country.

National authorities will have limited grounds to decline the task of collecting a fine.