92000E3341

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3341/00

by Bartho Pronk (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(25 October 2000)

Subject: Obstacle to the free movement of workers by car

Residents of the Netherlands are not permitted to drive a car with a foreign number plate. Eight weeks are needed to obtain a Dutch number plate.

Practical problems arise as a result. Anyone who goes to the Netherlands with the intention of becoming established there for any period of time is deemed to be a resident within the meaning of the law. In accordance with the Highway Code, a new resident in possession of a car is obliged to fit his car with a Dutch number plate.

Under European law job-seekers are permitted to spend three months, on full unemployment benefit, looking for a job in another Member State. If a European job-seeker goes to the Netherlands in search of a job he is deemed to be a resident pursuant to Dutch law and is therefore obliged to fit his car with a Dutch number plate. Until he has done so he is not allowed to use his car.

1. To what extent does the Commission regard the Dutch law in question as an obstacle to the opportunities available to job-seekers from outside the Netherlands for looking for work in the Netherlands?

2. Does the Commission believe that the Dutch law in question is an obstacle to the free movement of workers?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(14 November 2000)

The Commission has asked the Member State concerned for information regarding the facts raised to by the Honourable Member. It will inform him of its findings.