paulh wrote:just to put a side issue onto this....
how do the holiday scooter/moped rental people go about keeping within the law.
Based on our experience, they don't give a damn. Many years ago we came to Crete on holiday with our 16 year old son. He had no licence of any sort. I have a full car and motorbike licence. At that time my wife had a provisional car licence. We hired two bikes. A 250 cc Suzuki for my wife and I and a 50 cc moped for our son. They used my wife's provisional licence to register the bike to our son. They happen to have the same initial.
paulh wrote:Given that all parties were saying that the English licence would need translating how would any Greek policeman know that the English licence was valid for up to 49cc bikes too?
It is a condition of CONVERTING a UK licence to a Greek licence that you need a translation of the UK licence. It is nothing to do with the police being able to recognise categories on foreign licences. You don't need a translation to drive using a foreign licence.
The EU licences are effectively all the same. There is a category "A1" for mopeds up to 50 cc, or some roughly equivalent limit, and a category "A" for motorbikes over 50 cc. "A1" used to be granted automatically to UK car drivers. "A" required passing a test. The police can recognise what you are entitled to drive from these categories.
paulh wrote:And if the car part of a UK licence was valid then why is another part invalid?
Exactly! As far as I can see the driving licence for any EU country is valid in any other EU country. That is an EU regulation and nothing to do with DVLA or Greek licensing authorities. If your UK licence says that you are entitled to drive category "A1" then you are entitled to drive it. If the police say that you can't then they are breaking the EU regulation. A similar discrepancy occurs with commercial vehicles. In Greece you need a "professional" licence to drive any sort of commercial vehicle. In the UK you can drive up to 7500 kg on a car licence. If somebody with a UK licence took a 7500 kg vehicle from the UK, loaded it up and drove to Greece would he be driving illegally? All the evidence says NO! The principle is the same.
Warwick
PS On questions of law, it might be better to ask a lawyer than a policeman? I suspect Greek policemen have very little knowledge of the law?