Italy's Ministry of Transport is planning its next major overhaul of the Codice della Strada. On 8 August 2026, the Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti (MIT) sent 15 reform proposals to more than a hundred specialist associations, thereby launching the public consultation process. As ANSA describes the official package, the range of planned changes extends from lowering the driving licence age to 17, through graduated fines, to overtaking on the right on motorways. For German-speaking travellers, several points are directly relevant, most notably a new five-year deadline for the collection of unpaid fines from foreign drivers.
The second reform step in two years
The 2024 reform introduced zero tolerance for alcohol, drugs and mobile phone use at the wheel, and significantly tightened the corresponding penalties. The current consultation focuses on different areas: the aim is a set of rules that is closer to the everyday experience of drivers, but with road safety as the priority. Those already familiar with the basic workings of Italian traffic will recognise many of the new measures as the consequence of a long-running debate, in which order and improvisation have always existed side by side.
Fines to be graduated
The most notable point concerns fines. As Il Messaggero describes the planned changes in detail, penalties for speeding are to be proportional to the degree of the offence: an extra 10 euros per kilometre per hour over the limit on motorways, and 5 euros on slower roads. The automatic uprating of fines in line with inflation will be abolished. Seventy per cent of revenue is to be ring-fenced for road safety. Fines for two-wheeled vehicle parking offences will be halved.
The procedure itself is also being streamlined. The delivery deadline for remote detections such as speed camera proceedings will be reduced from 90 to 30 days. Anyone who pays a notice on time but with a formal error is to receive a reduced penalty rather than a full second notification. The Italian points system, which does not directly affect German drivers in any case, remains unchanged.
Five years to collect fines from foreign drivers
For drivers with foreign number plates, the most important new measure is a five-year deadline: within this period, the enforcement of unpaid fines is to be possible whenever the driver is encountered again in Italy with the vehicle in question. Until now, collecting fines from drivers registered abroad has been so administratively complex that many proceedings came to nothing. That is now set to change fundamentally.
In practice, this means that anyone who fails to pay an Italian fine in 2026 and drives through Italy in 2029 with the same vehicle risks a check with immediate collection. This is particularly relevant for German travellers who regularly drive over the Brenner to southern Italy or use a second vehicle registered in Italy. Controls on vehicles without valid insurance are also being tightened: a new task force from the Motorizzazione, the Italian road traffic authority, is to cross-reference databases and impose digital driving bans. Anyone subsequently caught again without insurance can expect immediate seizure of their vehicle.
Overtaking on the right and emergency lanes on motorways
Two proposals concern behaviour on motorways and will be familiar to many German drivers. On three-lane motorway sections with parallel traffic flows, overtaking on the right is to become legal. Motorcycles will be permitted to use the hard shoulder in traffic jams. Both measures represent an adjustment to a practice that has long since existed.
For travellers on routes between Modena and Bologna or between Rome and Naples, these rules will make a noticeable difference to everyday driving. On the cost side, however, nothing changes: the motorway toll rose at the start of 2026 and is not being touched by the reform.
Licences from 17, helmet requirement for courier bikes
Further key points include lowering the driving licence age to 17 for category B, which Italy is in any case required to implement under an EU directive by the end of 2027. For holders of categories A1 and B1, accompanied driving will be possible from the age of 16; for heavy vehicles in categories C1 and C, from 17 with a professional driver qualification. The Italian driver training system differs from the German one in several respects and will become even more flexible as a result of these changes.
For electric bikes without pedal assistance, of the kind widely used by couriers in Italian cities, a helmet requirement and number plate registration will be introduced. Municipalities will be required to join the European platform for disabled parking permits (CUDE). Those that refuse will lose the right to enforce violations relating to disabled parking spaces and ZTL zones automatically by camera.
What remains open
It is important to note: the 15 points are proposals within a consultation process, not a law that has already been passed. As La Presse outlines the process, the MIT will first evaluate the feedback from the relevant associations and then draw up a concrete draft law. This will be followed by parliamentary debate. No timetable for the legislation coming into force has been set, and the EU deadline for lowering the driving licence age runs until the end of 2027.
Until then, the existing rules of the Codice della Strada continue to apply unchanged, including the 2024 tightening of regulations on alcohol, drugs and mobile phone use at the wheel.
