Tensions in the transport area

Circulars, directives and regulations create administrative hurdles for citizens who experience discrimination within the Danish Commonwealth in the area of transport.

Rules and laws within the transport area tend to create challenges and make mobility within the kingdom more difficult. 

Rules and lawsAnnouncement

Buying a car in Denmark 

A current example is that some citizens residing in Greenland also have a house, summer house or just family in Denmark that they often visit. And in this connection, some have wondered why they are not allowed to buy and register a car in Denmark. 

Aaja Chemnitz recently put that question to Transport Minister Thomas Danielsen. 

The Minister of Transport responds that a vehicle can generally only be registered in the Vehicle Register if the vehicle has an owner with a residence or domicile in Denmark, or if the owner stays in Denmark for more than 185 days a year. 

“I have not previously been made aware that there is a desire that citizens who do not have a residence or domicile in Denmark, but in other parts of the Kingdom, should be able to be registered in the Vehicle Register as the owner of a vehicle. I would like to take a closer look at whether the current rules should be changed”, he writes in the response to Aaja Chemnitz.

Digital driver’s license app

 Another border obstacle concerns the possibility of using the digital driver’s license application, which has been developed by the Danish Digital Agency in collaboration with the Danish Transport Agency and the National Police.

With the driving license app installed on a phone, you don’t need to have your physical driving license in the car, and many Danes are happy about that. But the problem is that if you hold both a Danish and a Greenlandic driving license, you can’t use the app. This is because you can only hold one driving license according to the EU Driving License Directive. The latest report is that holders of Greenlandic driving licenses therefore do not have a special right to use the app, and the case has now been partially referred to the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for the Greenlandic driving license register.

Flexible solutions are in demand 

MOTOORI

The article is published in the supplement Motoori. You can find Motoori HERE

Aaja Chemnitz is now quite tired of the challenges in the driving license area, which she has been drawing attention to for many years.

– The biggest challenges are in the area of driving licenses, which I have drawn attention to countless times. This is based on many citizen inquiries, says Aaja Chemnitz, who emphasizes that legislation also prevents citizens with Danish driving licenses in Greenland from renewing their driving licenses if they are resident in Greenland, which is due to the EU’s interpretation of residence in the driving license directive.

Denmark has in this connection expressed a desire for a more relaxed and flexible approach to the issue of the definition of habitual residence, which is linked to the member states’ ability to issue and renew driving licenses. The revision of the driving license directive is still ongoing and the report is that Denmark is working to incorporate a solution into the new directive. 

EU driving license 

Greenlandic driving licenses cannot be directly equated with EU driving licenses.

 It is up to the EU member states to decide whether Greenlandic driving licenses should be recognized, as well as what rules should apply in relation to the possible exchange of a Greenlandic driving license for an EU driving license, and one of the requirements is that the traffic situation and road network in Greenland must be comparable to the traffic situation and road network in Denmark and the Member States. And it is unlikely, according to the Ministry of Transport, that the traffic situation and road network in Greenland will be considered comparable.

Students in Denmark 

Greenlandic students residing in Denmark also experience border obstacles, because they cannot be allowed to return to Greenland, for example during a summer vacation to get a Greenlandic driver’s license.

Although there is no residency requirement for obtaining a driver’s license in the Greenlandic Traffic Act, the requirement is stated in a circular that the Greenland Police enforces.

Bilsyn 

According to Aaja Chemnitz, the primary responsibility for resolving the many border obstacles within the transport area lies with Denmark, but this requires that the Greenland Government sets clear requirements and follows up.

For example, this also applies to car inspections, which have been carried out in Greenland for 25 years. The latest report is that the Ministry of Transport and the Danish Road Traffic Authority are working on an inspection model that meets Greenlandic wishes to the greatest extent possible.

Using a breathalyzer 

Other border obstacles in the area of transport include the fact that the Greenlandic Traffic Act does not contain limit values for driving under the influence of drugs. Likewise, the police currently do not have the authority to use drug meters, which is why the police lack an effective weapon in the fight against impaired drivers. It will require an amendment to the Traffic Act if limit values for drug driving are to be introduced, and this falls under the Danish Ministry of Transport, the Greenland Police has informed Sermitsiaq. Taxi Driving The entire taxi industry is also being regulated with an executive order that is in consultation until July 1.

The order came as a result of a loophole in the law that last spring caused several taxi drivers to demonstrate, because anyone with a driver’s license and a car could in principle act as a taxi driver without there being any basis for prosecuting these people.

ATV and snowmobile riding 

Finally, there are ATVs and snowmobiles, which many young people use for both agricultural work and fishing in Greenland, but which, according to Danish law, require both a car driver’s license and that you are over 18 years old to be allowed to drive legally. Here, Greenland wants the rules to be relaxed and adapted to Greenlandic society. And why is it that 17-year-olds in Denmark can get a driver’s license, while 17-year-olds in Greenland do not have the same opportunity? According to Aaja Chemnitz, a pilot project should be initiated with a driver’s license for 17-year-olds similar to the scheme in Denmark.