For several years Patrick Jonasson runs a small haulage company outside Järpen. When SVT hits him, the truck is out on the roads without him. Last week he received a letter from the Swedish Transport Agency. His driver's license for heavy vehicles, C and CE, had been withdrawn with immediate effect. The reason is Patrick's disease history:

- When I was a teenager, I had three epileptic seizures. The last was 1994.

Since then, Patrick Jonasson has been seizure-free. However, he has continued to take medicine.

- I've done it as a precaution.

And it's been totally okay, until now.

The EU requires ten years without medicine

Earlier, the rules said that professional drivers would have been seizure-free for five years. Whether or not they ate medicine didn't matter.

But in 2017, the Swedish Transport Agency decided that the EU directives should be followed, and they are much stricter. Now, professional drivers should have been seizure-free for ten years, and during these ten years they must also not have taken medication.

As Patrick Jonasson continued to medicate, it was decided that the driver's license for heavy vehicles should be revoked.

- I didn't think it was true when I made the decision, he says.

Already this spring, the Swedish Transport Agency had announced that his driver's license could be withdrawn. Patrick then immediately decided to end his medication. Two months later he did another test with the neurologist in Östersund.

- Even that test was completely unnoticed, he says.

The result was submitted to the Swedish Transport Agency, but there it was still rejected.

"Obliged to comply with EU directives"

The Swedish Board of Transport is well aware of the fact that the new stricter rules may strike against individual drivers.

- It is unfortunate for the people affected, but we are obliged to follow the EU directives, says Åsa Ericson, an investigator at the authority.

In Järpen, Patrick Jonasson intends to appeal to the Administrative Court.

"Of course, this is a financial breakdown, but most of the time it is emotionally very difficult," he says.