Traffic
Swiss traffic tickets are also enforced in Germany
Road traffic near the Gotthard road tunnel in Switzerland. The new police contract also regulates cross-border cooperation in the prosecution of road traffic violations. photo
© Urs Flueeler/KEYSTONE/dpa
Speeding is really expensive in Switzerland. A new police contract will soon end the possibility of simply sitting out fines from neighboring countries.
German illegal parking or speeders who are in the Those who received a ticket in Switzerland will soon also be asked to pay in Germany: This will be possible with the entry into force of the new police treaty between Germany and Switzerland. The German ambassador in Bern, Michael Flügger, exchanged the ratification documents in Bern with the director of the Federal Office of Police, Nicoletta della Valle. According to Flügger, the contract will come into force on May 1st.
Until now, traffic offenders have been able to sit out the sometimes hefty fines from Switzerland in Germany: fines from countries outside the EU – such as Switzerland or Great Britain – could not be enforced in Germany. There was only a risk of trouble if they entered the country again: in Switzerland, traffic offenders then had to expect a penalty notice.
The new regulation applies if the monetary claim imposed exceeds 70 euros or 80 francs. These thresholds are quickly reached in Switzerland: speeding by 20 kilometers per hour on the motorway costs 180 francs (184 euros), and even more on other roads. In Germany, such a speeding offense costs 60 euros.
The new police contract regulates cross-border cooperation in the fight against “terrorists, people smugglers, ATM busters and mafiosi,” as the Swiss Federal Office of Police announced on the LinkedIn network. The prosecution of road traffic violations is also part of this and is regulated in paragraph 48. It also applies vice versa if Swiss people violate traffic rules in Germany. “Upon request, the Contracting States shall provide each other with assistance in the enforcement of decisions by which the competent court or authority of a Contracting State finds an infringement of road traffic regulations and therefore imposes a penalty on a natural or legal person.”