A foreign fine in your mailbox

Two mechanisms, not one

Nearly all the confusion starts here. There's a directive that lets the country where something happened find out who you are and send you a letter. And there's a separate framework decision that decides whether your own country recognises and collects a foreign financial penalty.

The directive says so itself, in its recitals:

Further proceedings are covered by applicable legal instruments, including instruments on mutual assistance and on mutual recognition, for example Council Framework Decision 2005/214/JHA.

Directive (EU) 2015/413, recital 15. Accessed 26 August 2026.

In other words: the directive stops at the letter. What happens after falls under different rules.

Which offences they can look you up for

The scope is a closed list of eight:

This Directive applies to the following road-safety-related traffic offences: (a) speeding; (b) failing to use a seat-belt; (c) failing to stop at a red traffic light; (d) drink-driving; (e) driving while under the influence of drugs; (f) failing to wear a safety helmet; (g) the use of a forbidden lane; (h) illegally using a mobile telephone or any other communication devices while driving.

Directive (EU) 2015/413, Article 2.

Notice what's not on it. Parking isn't there. Tolls aren't there. Driving and rest time isn't there, and neither is overloading. That doesn't mean you'll never hear about those, just that this particular mechanism isn't built for them; those run through other channels.

The letter, and what it has to contain

First, something that's often forgotten: the country where it happened may prosecute, it doesn't have to.

The Member State of the offence shall decide whether or not to initiate follow-up proceedings in relation to the road-safety-related traffic offences listed in Article 2.

Directive (EU) 2015/413, Article 5(1).

If it does decide to prosecute, what belongs in the letter is fixed:

the Member State of the offence shall, in accordance with its law, include any relevant information, notably the nature of this road-safety-related traffic offence, the place, date and time of the offence, the title of the texts of the national law infringed and the sanction and, where appropriate, data concerning the device used for detecting the offence.

Directive (EU) 2015/413, Article 5(2).

Place, date, time, the national law provision infringed, the sanction, and, where applicable, which device detected it. If any of that's missing, you know what to ask about.

And in which language

the Member State of the offence, for the purpose of ensuring the respect of fundamental rights, sends the information letter in the language of the registration document of the vehicle, if available, or in one of the official languages of the Member State of registration.

Directive (EU) 2015/413, Article 5(3).

The language of your vehicle's registration document, or an official language of the country where the vehicle is registered. A letter you can't read isn't something you just have to live with.

Note that this hangs on the country where the vehicle is registered, not on your own nationality. Drive on a Dutch plate and the letter comes in Dutch, even if you're Polish or Romanian. And it goes to the owner or holder of the vehicle, which for a company vehicle means your employer.

Collecting is different from finding

For actually recognising and collecting a financial penalty, Council Framework Decision 2005/214/JHA applies. It sets out grounds on which the enforcing country can refuse, and one of them is purely about the amount.

There's also a provision that can work in your favour:

Where it is established that the decision is related to acts which were not carried out within the territory of the issuing State, the executing State may decide to reduce the amount of the penalty enforced to the maximum amount provided for acts of the same kind under the national law of the executing State, when the acts fall within the jurisdiction of that State.

Framework Decision 2005/214/JHA, Article 8(1).

The €70 threshold, and why it's usually explained wrong

This is the figure that circulates on every forum, usually incorrectly. What it actually says is this:

The competent authority of the executing State may also refuse to recognise or execute the decision if it is established that: ... the financial penalty is below EUR 70 or the equivalent to that amount.

Framework Decision 2005/214/JHA, Article 7(2), point (h).

It says may refuse, not must refuse. It's a possibility for the enforcing country, not an automatic floor and certainly not an exemption for you.

What you shouldn't conclude: that a fine under €70 never comes through. What you can conclude: there's a threshold below which a country may decide not to set up a procedure for it, and that differs by country.

Note the order too. This ground for refusal is about collecting in your own country. It says nothing about whether the country where you drove can send you the letter, and nothing about what happens if you drive there again.

Also read

• How a French fine works
• Italian fine with a foreign plate, where you can be required to pay a deposit on the spot
• Spanish fine and the 50% discount

Sources

• Directive (EU) 2015/413 facilitating cross-border exchange of information on road-safety-related traffic offences, recital 15 and Articles 2 and 5. EUR-Lex
• Council Framework Decision 2005/214/JHA on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to financial penalties, Article 7(2) and Article 8(1). EUR-Lex

Legal text quoted verbatim from the official English versions on EUR-Lex, accessed 26 August 2026. This page describes the European framework. How a country runs its own procedure, what deadlines it applies and how it handles objections differs by country and falls outside this page. This isn't legal advice for a specific case.