About Reciprocity

Reciprocity

Reciprocity is the country or state being visited recognising the Parking Permit of a visitor from another country or state, and granting to the visitor the same parking entitlements given to its own disabled citizens. There are two international agreements encouraging countries to recognise the Parking Permit of a visiting disabled person:

• The member states of the International Transport Forum (ITF): EU and EEA, along with USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea, have agreed in principle to reciprocity for each others disabled citizens: "To provide people with reduced mobility with a document (Parking Card / Permit) _ _ _ and to give the same parking facilities to holders of this document coming from another member or associated member country as they do to their own nationals" (ECMT (now ITF) Resolution 97/4)
  
  
• The member states of the EU and EEA are recommended to give reciprocity to disabled visitors from another EU / EEA member state who have the standardised EU model Parking Card so that: "Parking card holders may benefit from the associated parking facilities available in the Member State in which they happen to be" (EU Council Recommendations 98/376/EC and 2008/205/EC)

However, both are recommendations only and not binding on the signatory countries so that while some offer reciprocity, others do not.

As far as we are aware, there are no international agreements on reciprocity among any of the ITF countries.

For those countries and regions where there is reciprocity in full or part, we have provided a notice for you to print-out explaining it to local police and parking officials.

This may all seem complicated, but we hope that the individual entries in the Guide will make it clearer.

You should look at the entry in the Guide for the country or state you will be visiting, and when you arrive always ask locally if your Parking Permit will be recognised - local people, police and parking officials will want to help you so don't be afraid to ask.

Always: ask locally, park sensibly and safely, obey the rules, enjoy your visit!