Foreign licence holders may face compulsory driving test

Every year, Belgium issues thousands of driving licences to people who have never sat a driving test, De Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Belang van Limburg report. Citizens from 118 countries can exchange the licence issued in their home country for a Belgian one. But, according to Melchior Wathelet (pictured), state secretary for mobility, “For some countries, we simply don’t have sufficient guarantees that the holder took the adequate tests.” For example, 9,480 Moroccan nationals have traded in their licences for Belgian ones, when in fact the practice of buying a driving licence without sitting any tests is widespread in some parts of Morocco. “We have to guarantee road safety for our citizens,” says Wathelet. “A think-tank will convene in 2013 to seek concrete solutions as to how to tackle this problem. Implementing theory and practice exams for non-EU nationals is certainly a possibility.”