13,000 driver’s licenses suspended in Kosovo this year; Experts: Penalties raise civic awareness

In Kosovo, 13,000 driver’s licenses have been suspended from January through the end of November this year, while thousands of other drivers have been penalized with negative points for violating traffic regulations. Traffic experts assess that this shows drivers are not sufficiently educated when it comes to road traffic, but that strict penalties help raise civic awareness.

Under the Law on Road Traffic Rules, reasons for revoking a driver’s license include exceeding the speed limit by more than 50 percent, failing to obey traffic lights, running a red light and exceeding the maximum permitted speed.

“In the period January–November 2025, 13,446 drivers were banned from operating motor vehicles, and a total of 55,809 penalties with negative points were issued. During 2024, 11,933 drivers were banned from operating motor vehicles, and a total of 50,887 penalties with negative points were issued,” the Kosovo Police said in a statement.

Traffic expert Faton Bunjaku estimates that these figures do not present a good picture for Kosovo, Kosova Press reports.

“This is not a good image for our country because, even before Europe, we appear as a country that does not have sufficiently educated drivers in road traffic. However, the state’s focus should be more on completing road infrastructure and traffic signs, and then more on imposing misdemeanor measures such as revoking driver’s licenses. License revocation is just one measure that has been widely debated in the public as to whether it is right to revoke a license or not,” he said.

He added that he believes the authorities should focus on improving and completing road infrastructure and traffic signaling.

“In road traffic, the state should first focus on signaling and completing roads, because we have very poor traffic signaling. We also have road maintenance, which is very poor. We have entered the winter season, temperatures have taken their toll, fog has taken its toll, we have very dirty roads, and as a result we have unsafe roads for vehicles,” he said.

At the same time, traffic expert Bekim Ahmeti considers the high number of revoked driver’s licenses to be positive, as he expects it to influence public awareness.

“This is very good news because people need to become aware, willingly or unwillingly, which means they must become aware, because you cannot take away someone’s rights in traffic the way it happens to us every day. We respect traffic rules to the maximum, yet our rights are taken away in the most inhumane way possible. If there is any sense of shame among Albanians, there is the least of it in traffic, or none at all. I think this is very good because people are becoming aware. In Austria, people pay 75 euros if they do not use pedestrian crossings,” he said.