Driving licenses of Bosnia and Herzegovina are not recognized in Albania, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, according to information from the Ministry of Communications and Transport in the Council of Ministers.
The Ministry states that on May 17 last year, the BiH Presidency made a decision to accept the agreement between BiH and Spain on the mutual recognition and exchange of driver’s licenses, and that on the basis of this, the Ministry sent an invitation to the other party to organize the signing of the agreement, which is awaited the answer.
Back in 2013, an initiative was launched to conclude an agreement with Albania on the mutual recognition and exchange of driver’s licenses, and negotiations were scheduled to harmonize its text, but the Albanian side canceled them just before the agreed date of the meeting.
This issue was brought up to date again in 2022, when Bosnia and Herzegovina forwarded a draft agreement, to which the Albanian side is expected to respond.
Harmonization of the agreement with Italy on mutual recognition and exchange of driver’s licenses has been ongoing since 2012, but so far it has not been reached, the Ministry noted.
The Ministry of Communications and Transport stated in the Council of Ministers that it initiated the conclusion of bilateral agreements on the mutual recognition and exchange of driver’s licenses with Greece, Cyprus, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland, and the harmonization of the text of the agreement has not even begun because there is the willingness of the other party.
Bosnia and Herzegovina also initiated an amendment to the agreement with Germany in order to enable mutual recognition of driver’s licenses for categories A and B as well as for other categories without taking a theoretical or practical test, to which a positive response from the competent German authority has not yet been received.
When it comes to Slovenia, this country points out that they are following the recommendations of the European Commission, which established an expert working group that compiled a list of non-EU countries for which it is recommended to replace driver’s licenses for certain categories, but Bosnia and Herzegovina and some other countries are not on that list, because, as stated, it was not possible to reliably verify the fulfillment of the jointly agreed criteria.
The Ministry of Infrastructure of Slovenia informed the Ministry of Communications and Transport in the Council of Ministers that the driver’s license needs to be replaced only in the case that a person from BiH has a habitual residence in Slovenia and based on a residence permit for more than a year, and that in other conditions the driver’s license can be used from BiH, Klix.ba reports.
