A lobby group representing people living with severe disabilities has urged the government to introduce lifelong disabled parking permits, after a man was fined €145 for using a space after his five-year card had expired.
In Luxembourg, a disabled parking permit is only valid for five years, and must be renewed by submitting a new application to the transport ministry, which said that just under 13,000 such permits are currently in circulation in the country.
This is the case even if the disability is considered “lifelong”, as evidenced by a medical diagnosis.
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Jean-François Covi, of the Luxembourg Association for Rett Syndrome (ALSR), named after a rare genetic disease that affects about a dozen people in the Grand Duchy, said his association is lobbying for the law to be changed.
The group recently assisted a parent of a child with severe disabilities who was fined €145 for parking in a space reserved for the disabled when the permit displayed on his windscreen had expired.
“This father hadn’t realised that his card had expired. Our association filed a complaint and the fine was able to be cancelled, free of charge. The authorities were understanding and very fair,” Covi said.
He said that for those living with a disability, or caring for someone with a disability, it is easy to forget about the parking permit as they often have many things to juggle at once.
“When you’re a disabled person or you care for a disabled person, you already have many complicated things to manage on a daily basis. It’s an additional administrative burden for parents already exhausted by the constant care of a severely disabled child,” Covi said.
The ALSR’s demands are clear and simple, calling for the five-year rule to be scrapped, as is already the case in France and Belgium.
“People with severe, permanent and irreversible disabilities have no reason to receive a card with a limited validity period. Their disability will not disappear. Automatic expiration is therefore meaningless,” Covi said.
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A spokesperson for the transport ministry told Virgule that the five-year permit is simply a reflection of the existing law.
“In accordance with the law of February 11, 2022, establishing a parking permit for disabled persons, no permit is issued permanently,” the spokesperson said. “So-called ‘permanent’ permits are issued for a period of five years, as provided for by current legislation, including when the disability is recognised as permanent.”
The purpose of this time limit is to allow the person’s situation to be reassessed and to see whether their disability has changed, and also to help combat fraudulent use of disabled parking permits.
The ALSR plans to continue its campaign on the issue. “If nothing changes, our association will launch an official petition to ensure that the legislation is adapted to the reality of severe and permanent disabilities,” said Covi, although he fears that such an approach might not achieve its goal.
“Generally, petitions are often well-founded, but it’s difficult to reach the 5,500 signature threshold because the problem doesn’t affect many people in Luxembourg,” he said.
(This article was originally published by Virgule. Machine translated using AI, with editing and adaptation by John Monaghan.)
