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UK Driving Licence To Be Updated In Weeks Confirms Embassy In Spain Spain News

Despite facing mounting criticism over significant delays, the British Embassy in Spain has reaffirmed its belief, through a Facebook post, that the UK driving licence agreement in Spain will be finalised "in a few weeks."

The initial agreement to allow UK nationals to exchange their driving licence for a Spanish one within six months, without needing to take a driving test, was scheduled to take effect in Spain last summer. Nonetheless, the necessary legal procedures for its completion remain unfinished.

The Embassy’s latest Facebook post said “We know those of you affected are very anxious to know when the driving licence agreement will be reviewed by the Consejo de Ministros.

The Spanish Government will not publicly confirm the date as the Council’s agendas are not made public ahead of time. In our last update on 22nd February, we said that Spain had assured us that our deal would go before Consejo de Ministros in ‘the next few weeks.

This continues to be our understanding and the message we’re receiving from Spain, which means that it will be very soon.

We will post again as soon as we receive confirmation that this has taken place.

The message implies that the reason for the absence of a definitive date for the agreement is attributable to the Spanish government rather than the British side.

This latest ‘update’ will be highly frustrating for the many British drivers who have been banned from driving in Spain since May 1, 2022, as it doesn’t tell them anything different from the previous update on February 22.

That update followed huge criticism from British drivers, over the speed at which the Spanish Council of Ministers were able to reach a mutual licence agreement, within just over three months, with New Zealand.

Mr Elliott stated in the February post, that the New Zealand agreement negotiations were “not comparable” to the UK-Spain situation. But he tried to assure British drivers that he had once again been in contact with the Spanish government, requesting the acceleration of the process to get Brits back on the road in Spain.

Sources

https://www.facebook.com/BritsInSpain
https://euroweeklynews.com/2023/03/09/licence-update-embassy-confirms-uk-driving-licence-will-go-through-in-weeks/