EUROPE-wide driving bans were welcomed by Home Secretary Jack Straw yesterday as a breakthrough for cross-border co-operation.

Ministers meeting in Brussels approved moves which mean that for the first time a disqualifications imposed in Britain for a motoring offences will apply equally in the 14 other member states.

At present a driver disqualified in one member state can carry on driving anywhere else in the EU.

Mr Straw admitted the agreement was not perfect, in the absence of identical driving laws and penalties in the various states. But he said it was an improvement on the current situation.

With differing drink-drive laws, for instance, some countries had hesitated to agree that a motorist disqualified for breaching Sweden's ultra-tough drink-drive laws should be banned in other states with more lax rules.

But from now on, licensing authorities in all EU member states will be routinely notified of national driving bans, adding the offender to a common Europe-wide list of disqualified drivers.