Annual Inspection for Cars Over 10 Years Old? The EU Plan Is Changing, but in Latvia It Is Already a Reality

The news that the European Union wanted cars over ten years old to undergo a roadworthiness inspection every year caused considerable concern in many countries.

Some drivers saw it as yet another additional cost for owners of older vehicles. Others began calculating whether it would remain worthwhile to maintain a car that was ten or fifteen years old.

In Latvia, however, the situation is much more interesting than the dramatic headlines suggest.

Passenger cars in Latvia already undergo a roadworthiness inspection every 12 months after their ninth year.

The Commission’s original proposal for annual inspections after ten years would therefore not have created a new inspection frequency for a large proportion of Latvian drivers.

Moreover, the situation at EU level had changed by summer 2026. Both national governments in the Council of the EU and the European Parliament rejected a mandatory change from biennial inspections to annual inspections after a vehicle’s tenth birthday in their negotiating positions.

This does not mean that the entire reform has been abandoned.

On the contrary, roadworthiness testing may become more digital, more precise and much more closely connected with a vehicle’s electronic data, mileage, emissions and safety software.

The short conclusion: the EU has not adopted a rule requiring every car over ten years old to undergo an annual inspection. Both Parliament and the Council currently oppose this part of the Commission’s proposal. In Latvia, the dispute would make little difference in any case because older passenger cars are already inspected every year.

What did the European Commission originally propose?

In April 2025, the European Commission published a broad reform of roadworthiness testing and vehicle-registration rules.

The Commission’s original proposal stated that M1-category passenger cars and N1-category light commercial vehicles should be inspected:

This would have been an EU minimum standard. Member states would still have been allowed to use a stricter inspection schedule.

The Commission justified the proposal by pointing out that Europe’s vehicle fleet is ageing and that older vehicles present an increased risk of technical defects, excessive emissions and mileage manipulation.

However, the proposal covered much more than inspection frequency alone.

What had happened by summer 2026?

The European Commission submits a proposal, but the final legislation is adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, which represents the governments of the member states.

Both legislative institutions had approved their negotiating positions by summer 2026.

Older vehicles in Latvia are already inspected every year

Latvia’s inspection schedule for passenger cars differs from the EU minimum used in the Commission’s proposal.

For example, a car first registered in 2016 is already subject to annual roadworthiness testing in Latvia in 2026.

The headline “The EU will require ten-year-old vehicles to be inspected every year” therefore gives Latvian drivers the incorrect impression that an entirely new obligation is being planned.

Even if the Commission’s original version were adopted, Latvia would most likely be able to retain its existing stricter schedule.

How many Latvian vehicles are affected?

Latvia has one of the vehicle fleets in which older cars represent a particularly large share.

Official statistics for the end of 2025 show the following distribution of registered passenger cars:

In total, Latvia had 604,859 passenger cars more than ten years old.

That represented approximately 75.3% of the entire registered passenger-car fleet.

Any change to roadworthiness-testing procedures in Latvia therefore affects not a small group of old vehicles but the majority of car owners.

How much does a roadworthiness inspection cost?

According to the price list published by the Latvian Road Traffic Safety Directorate, or CSDD, the total cost of the basic inspection for an M1-category passenger car is EUR 36.95.

This amount does not include the vehicle operation tax, insurance, repairs or other payments that the owner may need to make before the inspection.

If a vehicle passes the basic inspection on its first attempt for five consecutive years and the price remains unchanged, the total cost of five annual inspections would be EUR 184.75.

However, owners of older vehicles in Latvia already face these costs. The EU reform does not currently create a second inspection within the same year or propose inspections every six months.

Inspection frequency may not be the most important part of the reform

For Latvian drivers, the parts of the reform that received less attention in public headlines may prove much more significant.

If the common directions supported by Parliament, the Council and the Commission remain in the final legislation, the roadworthiness-testing system could become more closely connected with:

Could a Latvian-registered vehicle be inspected in another EU country?

One of the most practically interesting proposals is the possibility of obtaining a temporary roadworthiness certificate in another EU member state.

This could help a person who lives, studies or works outside Latvia for an extended period while the vehicle remains registered in Latvia.

The Council’s position provides that a temporary roadworthiness certificate issued in another member state could allow the vehicle to remain in traffic for another six months.

During that period, the vehicle would have to undergo the full inspection in the country where it is registered.

The final legislation still needs to determine the technical data, inspection quality, fees and the process through which a foreign inspection station will receive information about the vehicle.

A vehicle registration certificate on your phone

Another part of the reform concerns vehicle-registration documents.

The European Parliament’s negotiating position would gradually make the digital registration certificate the primary document format within three years after the new rules enter into force.

The document could be stored in the European Digital Identity Wallet and verified electronically.

At the same time, Parliament wants drivers to retain the option of requesting a physical registration certificate.

A digital document does not mean that anyone who scans the QR code will see the owner’s personal data.

Access rights will have to be divided according to whether the information is being checked by the owner, police, an inspection station, a registration authority or another authorised person.

Repair shops could record vehicle mileage

Reducing odometer readings remains one of the most difficult forms of fraud to detect in the used-car market.

At present, mileage is generally recorded during roadworthiness inspections and in certain repair documents.

A year or even several years may pass between inspections when the vehicle is newer.

The European Parliament’s position provides that repair shops should submit a vehicle’s odometer reading to a national database when a repair takes longer than one hour.

Manufacturers could also be required to submit regular mileage data from connected vehicles.

If a sales advertisement suddenly stated 149,000 kilometres in March 2028, the inconsistency would be much easier to prove.

The more independent data points that are stored, the more difficult it becomes for a dishonest seller to create a credible but false mileage history.

Cross-border data exchange will be particularly important because manipulation often occurs before a vehicle is exported and registered in another country.

Will a used-car buyer be able to see the complete mileage history?

The reform is intended to improve data availability for authorities and reduce fraud, but this does not automatically mean that the complete database will be publicly accessible.

The final rules will have to determine:

Buyers will still need to evaluate the vehicle’s complete history rather than relying on a single number.

The mileage record may be genuine while the vehicle has still suffered a serious collision, received inadequate maintenance or been used under particularly demanding conditions.

More accurate emissions tests

A modern vehicle may appear technically sound and show no dashboard warnings while still emitting considerably more harmful substances than permitted.

The cause may be a damaged or removed DPF, an improperly modified engine-control programme, a defective SCR system, a non-functioning catalytic converter or another emissions-system problem.

The Commission’s proposal provides for newer methods of measuring ultrafine particles and nitrogen oxides, or NOx.

The European Parliament’s position supports the possibility of using remote roadside measurements to identify vehicles with potentially excessive emissions and refer them for an additional inspection.

This does not mean that every vehicle would automatically receive a penalty after passing a roadside sensor.

A remote measurement would instead serve as a risk-selection instrument, after which a more precise inspection would be required.

What would be inspected in electric vehicles and hybrids?

A conventional vehicle inspection traditionally focuses on the brakes, suspension, lighting, steering, tyres, corrosion and exhaust emissions.

An electric vehicle has no exhaust system, but it contains other potentially dangerous components.

The technical annex to the Commission’s proposal includes specific inspection points for the high-voltage systems of battery-electric vehicles and hybrids.

This does not mean that the inspection would determine the battery’s precise remaining-capacity percentage or guarantee its future service life.

The primary purpose would be to detect visible and electronically identifiable safety risks rather than perform a complete battery-health assessment.

ADAS and vehicle software could become part of the inspection

In newer vehicles, safety is increasingly provided not only by mechanical parts but also by software, cameras, radar sensors and electronic control units.

These systems include:

A camera may be incorrectly calibrated after a windscreen replacement. A radar sensor may be misaligned after a collision involving the front of the vehicle. A function may have been disabled in software in a used car to conceal a fault.

The new system could allow an inspection station to use the vehicle’s electronic interface to check whether certain safety systems are present, operational and free from unauthorised modification.

The final regulation will need to determine which information manufacturers must provide to inspection stations and how to prevent testing from becoming dependent exclusively on expensive brand-specific equipment.

Five practical examples for Latvian drivers

In none of these examples would the proposed reform remove the owner’s responsibility to keep the vehicle in a safe condition between inspections.

A roadworthiness certificate confirms the vehicle’s condition at the time of the inspection. It does not guarantee that the tyres, brakes or suspension will still be in proper condition six months later.

What is not changing yet?

Even after a political agreement, the text of the directive will still have to be formally approved and published.

Member states will then receive an implementation period whose length will be determined by the final legislation.

Drivers therefore do not need to change their behaviour merely because an online headline mentions an EU proposal.

Myths and reality

The biggest mistake is to read only the headline without checking whether it refers to a Commission proposal, Parliament’s position, the Council’s position or legislation that has already been adopted.

In the EU legislative process, there may be substantial differences between the first proposal and the final requirement.

In this case, the most controversial requirement for annual inspections after ten years has already been removed from the initial negotiating positions of both legislative institutions.

Mini test: have you understood the proposed rules correctly?

Correct answers: 1 — yes; 2 — no; 3 — no; 4 — no; 5 — yes; 6 — yes; 7 — yes; 8 — yes; 9 — yes; 10 — no.

If you answered the second, third or fourth question incorrectly, a dramatic headline may have caused you to confuse the Commission’s original proposal with the current legislative status.

What should drivers do now?

The best way to prepare for a new roadworthiness-testing system is not to wait until the final moment but to maintain a transparent vehicle history.

Repair invoices, regular mileage records, completed manufacturer recalls and properly performed repairs may also increase the vehicle’s resale value in the future.

Conclusion: the most dramatic proposal would be the smallest change for Latvia

The European Commission’s proposal for annual inspections of vehicles over ten years old received the greatest public attention, but for Latvian drivers it would be the least surprising part of the reform.

Passenger cars in Latvia are already inspected annually after their ninth year.

In addition, both the European Parliament and the Council of the EU entered the negotiations in summer 2026 from positions that did not support the Commission’s requirement for mandatory annual inspections after ten years.

Much more significant changes may help detect manipulated mileage, defective emissions systems, unsafe electric-vehicle high-voltage components and unlawfully disabled electronic safety functions.

A digital registration certificate and closer data exchange between EU countries could simplify the use of a vehicle abroad and make the used-car market more transparent.

However, several legal and technical stages remain before a final political agreement is reached and the requirements are implemented in Latvia.

Drivers should therefore continue to follow their current CSDD inspection deadlines and do not need to take any emergency action merely because of an EU proposal that has not yet been adopted.

The main conclusion for drivers: in Latvia, an annual roadworthiness inspection for a ten-year-old vehicle is not a new surprise from Brussels — it is already the current procedure. Drivers should focus not on the alarming phrase “ten years”, but on how the reform may change mileage histories, emissions testing, digital documents, EV safety and transparency in the used-car market.

Official and image sources