Diplomats to no longer get away with traffic violations in NL
From May 1st diplomats will no longer just get away with traffic violations in the Netherlands. The number of traffic violations committed by diplomats increased explosively over the past years, and the Dutch government is therefore implementing a new system to address the situation, RTL Nieuws reports.
Due to a ruling in 2014, diplomats can not receive fines. They have diplomatic immunity on the basis of the Vienna Convention. This led to annoyance in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs therefore decided to find a new tactic, which will be implemented on May 1st.
If a diplomat commits a traffic violation, the responsible embassy will be sent a letter stating that a traffic violation has been committed and that it is usually fined. The Ministry will then send the embassy a request to pay the fine. They are not obliged to comply. Frequent offenders who do not pay their fines will be summoned to the Ministry for a talk. If that does not help either, other measures will follow. This could include the publication of a list of repeat offenders.
The number of traffic violations committed by diplomats increased from 9,850 in 2015 to 29,584 last year, Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs said in a letter to the Tweede Kamer. He thinks it is important for road safety that no one is allowed to just get away with violations. "This new system takes care of that."
