Issuing of driver cards
Article 26
1. Driver cards shall be issued, at the request of the driver, by the competent authority of the Member State where the driver has his normal residence. They shall be issued within one month of the receipt by the competent authority of the request and all necessary documentation. 2. For the purposes of this Article, ‘normal residence’ means the place where a person usually lives, that is for at least 185 days in each calendar year, because of personal and occupational ties, or, in the case of a person with no occupational ties, because of personal ties which show close links between that person and the place where he is living. However, the normal residence of a person whose occupational ties are in a place different from their personal ties and who consequently lives in turn in different places situated in two or more Member States shall be regarded as being the place of their personal ties, provided that such person returns there regularly. This last condition need not be complied with where the person is living in a Member State in order to carry out a fixed-term assignment. 3. Drivers shall give proof of their normal residence by any appropriate means, such as their identity card or any other valid document. Where the competent authorities of the Member State issuing the driver card have doubts as to the validity of a statement as to normal residence, or for the purpose of certain specific controls, they may request any additional information or evidence. 4. In duly justified and exceptional cases, Member States may issue a temporary and non-renewable driver card valid for a maximum period of 185 days to a driver who does not have his normal residence in a Member State or in a State which is a Contracting Party to the AETR Agreement, provided that such driver is in a labour law relationship with an undertaking established in the issuing Member State and, in so far as Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 16 ) applies, presents a driver attestation as referred to in that Regulation. The Commission shall, on the basis of data provided by Member States, closely monitor the application of this paragraph. It shall report its findings every two years to the European Parliament and to the Council, and shall examine in particular whether temporary driver cards produce any negative impact on the labour market, and whether temporary cards are issued to named drivers ordinarily on more than one occasion. The Commission may make an appropriate legislative proposal to revise this paragraph. 5. The competent authorities of the issuing Member State shall take appropriate measures to ensure that an applicant does not already hold a valid driver card and shall personalise the driver card, ensuring that its data are visible and secure. 6. The driver card shall not be valid for more than five years. 7. A valid driver card shall not be withdrawn or suspended unless the competent authorities of a Member State find that the card has been falsified, or the driver is using a card of which he is not the holder, or the card held has been obtained on the basis of false declarations and/or forged documents. If such suspension or withdrawal measures are taken by a Member State other than the issuing Member State, the former shall return the card to the authorities of the Member State which issued it, as soon as possible, indicating the reasons for the withdrawal or suspension. If the return of the card is expected to take longer than two weeks, the suspending or withdrawing Member State shall inform the issuing Member State within those two weeks of the reasons for suspension or withdrawal. 8. Member States shall take all necessary measures to prevent driver cards from being falsified. 9. This Article shall not prevent a Member State from issuing a driver card to a driver who has his normal residence in a part of that Member State’s territory, to which the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union do not apply, provided that the relevant provisions of this Regulation are applied in such cases.