SPAIN seeks an agreement with Britain
Diplomatic sources have suggested that the problem may be related to a larger agreement that is being negotiated between Britain and Spain and includes the post-Brexit rights of British citizens living in Spain. This suggestion comes as British expats take to social media to express their outrage that their UK driving licences aren't any longer valid in Spain.
Although it has not been formally verified, it appears that the Spanish government is delaying the issuance of the UK driving licences until the new, larger agreement with Britain has been finalised. The status of Gibraltar and its citizens following Brexit is also covered by this agreement.
The Spanish government has stated that it wants cordial ties with Liz Truss's new British administration and that it wants to find solutions to a number of problems that have arisen as a result of Brexit.
Some British expats' main worries are that an agreement that the British Embassy believed would be struck over the summer has still not been certified and that their UK driver's licences are no longer valid in Spain. The current negotiations over Gibraltar, according to a news report by the Spanish national news agency EFE, may be the cause of the delay. This would explain the current driving licence issue, which is irritating the Foreign Office and the British Embassy in Madrid as well as a cause of ire for expats.
To put the situation in perspective, Spain did grant a number of grace periods during which expatriates from the United Kingdom—not travellers who are permitted to drive—could exchange their British licences for Spanish ones. According to the social media outrage, hundreds of British expats still appear to have neglected to do so, and Spain has not yet extended the grace period.
