Vehicle registration plates of Europe

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A European vehicle registration plate is a vehicle registration plate, a metal or plastic plate or plates attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies the vehicle within the issuing region's database. In the European Union they are based on a common format and are issued by member states.

The common EU format was introduced by Council Regulation (EC) No 2411/98 of 3 November 1998^[1] and entered into force on the 11 November 1998. It was based on a model registration plate which several member states had introduced, Ireland (1991),^[2] Portugal (1992),^{[citation needed]} and Germany (1994).^[3]

The EU format is optional in Finland, Sweden, Cyprus^[4], United Kingdom and Denmark. Belgium will implement the common format by 2010.^[5]

All Euro plates are of a standardised format, either white or yellow in colour with black characters on a plate longer horizontally than it is tall vertically. Yellow registration plates are used in the Netherlands and in Luxembourg; United Kingdom use yellow plates at the rear and white at the front. The UK uses plastic plates, as opposed to metal plates in most other EU countries. A mixture of plastic or metal plates is permitted in Ireland, France, and more recently, Germany.^[6] Denmark uses yellow plates for vehicles registered as commercial vehicles and in Sweden and Greece yellow plates are used for taxi vehicles. Belgium uses red characters. In Norway, cars with front seats only (used for cargo) have green plates with black characters. Danish plates have a small holographic strip to the right of the blue EU strip.

The common design consists of a blue strip on the left side of the plate. This blue strip has the European flag symbol (twelve yellow stars), along with the country code of the member state in which the vehicle is registered.

By convention, vehicles are expected to display oval nationality stickers at the rear when driving in other countries, but this rule has not always been observed. With a standardised EU registration plate, the nationality sticker is not needed when visiting other countries of the EU, since the country is denoted on the registration plate; it is however needed when travelling outside the EU.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Common letter and digit systems between countries

Several countries have made efforts to avoid duplicating registration numbers used by other countries. Nevertheless this is not completely successful and there are occasional difficulties for example in connection with parking fines and automatic speed cameras.

Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania and Belgium each use combinations of three letters and three digits.
Norway and Denmark use two letters and five digits. The plates look very similar, but Denmark has a red border around the plate. Use of the country code on the plate may mitigate this problem (Norway began using the system on 1 November 2006). Denmark has begun running out of combinations in this style and has now introduced combinations previously reserved for Faroe Islands for EU style number plates (which will use different letters than non-EU style plates).
The Netherlands and Portugal both use three groups of two characters (letters or numbers) in several sequences: AB-12-CD, 12-34-AB, 12-AB-34, AB-12-CD, etc. However, Portuguese plates have a white background, while those of Netherlands have a yellow one, though both countries also use white letters on blue plates for classic cars. Furthermore, newer plates on Dutch vehicles only contain consonants, to avoid coincidental abbreviations or words. Also some sensitive letter combinations, such as SS or SD, are not used. The combination 'AA' is reserved for cars of the royal family. Dutch company registered bus, truck and/or minivan plates always start with a B or a V. Dutch taxis use blue registration plates. The number of new combinations ran out in 2008. By now, new registered cars in the Netherlands use the following format of two digits-three letters-one digit (12-ABC-3).
Current registrations allocated in Great Britain and most counties of Romania are both of the form AB12 CDE. The Romanian rear plates are white whereas British ones are yellow. There is also a difference in the spacing and the font.
France and Italy use exactly the same plate colours and combination of letters and digits (AB-123-CD), which leads to high risks of confusion, furthermore as these are neighbouring countries with many cross-frontier traffic.

[edit] Differing numbering systems

Individual European countries use differing numbering schemes and text fonts:

Most countries, including Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (formerly also Italy—until October 1993—, Lithuania and Spain—until 2000—), have systems in which there is a direct link between a letter or letters appearing on the plate and the town or district where the plate was issued (e.g. "B" and "M" in Germany for Berlin and Munich, "TN" and "ZV" in Slovakia for Trenčín and Zvolen) and "AX" and "KY" in Greece for Achaia and Corfu (Kerkyra in Greek). Some countries, including Austria, Germany, Slovenia, and Switzerland) even include a regional or municipal coat of arms on the plate.
France (until 2009) and Russia use a system with an indirect number relation to the car's place of registration.
The UK uses a system based on the region where the car was first registered and the date of registration.
Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Bosnia and Herzegovina use plates which do not denote location. Since 2000 Spain no longer uses province codes on plates but codes like 'B' for Barcelona, 'M' for Madrid and 'GI' for Girona can still be seen, for cars registered before that date.
Italy, since 1999, has added two blue strips at both sides. In the right one there are the two digits of the year when the plate was issued (e.g. "99", "05", "08") and below it the two-letter code of the Province, like "MO" for Modena.
France, since 2009, has adopted the same system as Italy, inserting the number of the Department in a blue strip on the right side of the plate.

[edit] Registration taxes

The Netherlands and Portugal have introduced differentiations into their car registration taxes to encourage car buyers to opt for the cleanest car models.^[7]

In the Netherlands, the new registration taxes, payable when a car is sold to its first buyer, can earn the owner of a hybrid a discount up to €6000.

Austria has had a registration tax based on fuel consumption for several years.

[edit] Gallery

Car registration plates from France as observed 2004.	current car registration plate from Germany.	Austrian registration plate from Vienna	British number plates (1982 – 2001 system), as observed in 2004. The bottom plate has no EU ring as it is not compulsory in the UK.	Licence plate from Sweden	Manx (not in the EU) car registration plate
Polish plates. New with EU stars and old issued shortly before EU membership.	Lithuanian plate issued shortly before EU membership. The same format is still used, except with the EU logo instead of the country flag.	Danish number plate with the current style.	Czech registration plate. - since 2004	Number plate of a Belgian car	Belgian vehicle registration plate for Europe
Dutch car number plate	A standard Hungarian registration plate.	A plate from Andorra.	Location anonymous licence plate in Bosnia and Herzegovina	Fälschungserschwerende Schrift, used on German plates to hinder falsification. Note that normally similar glyphs (e.g. O and Q) are distinct in shape.	The newest Slovak plate.
A standard Finnish license plate	Car registration rear plate of Jersey (British, not in the EU)	A standard Slovenian registration plate from Nova Gorica.	Car registration plate from Romania (EU)	current car registration plate from Italy.	A standard Russian license plate
Car number plate from the unrecognized territory of Transnistria. Instead of a country code there is a holographic sticker	Registration plate from Croatia with region code, numbers and letter in alphabet.