The motivation for the move comes primarily because the EC is failing to meet a self-imposed goal of reducing EU road deaths by half for 2011. They fell year-on-year between 2001 and 2006, but stalled in 2007.

The past five years have seen a 47 per cent rise in the number of foreign drivers involved in accidents in Britain, while foreign lorry drivers are three times more likely to be involved in collisions in this country than their British counterparts