European vehicle registration plate

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 and entered into force on the 11 Nov 1998. It was based on a model registration plate which several member states had introduced, Ireland 1991, Portugal 1992, and Germany 1994. (This 'common format' has since been claimed to be "stolen" from a registered design - number 2053070 - registered at the UK Patent office by David and Nansi Mottram in 1995, some years after the introduction of the plate format in Ireland, Portugal, and Germany. [1]. No successful challenge has been launched by the registered "designers" to date.)

The EU format is optional in Finland, France, Sweden, Cyprus [2] and the United Kingdom. Belgium and Denmark have not yet implemented the common format. [3]

• All Euro plates are of a standardised format, either white or yellow in colour with black characters. Yellow registration plates are used in the Netherlands and in Luxembourg; France and the United Kingdom use yellow plates at the rear and white at the front. The UK also uses plastic plates, as opposed to metal plates in most other EU countries (see British car number plates). 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.

• The common design consists of a blue strip on the left side of the plate. This blue strip has the European flag symbol (12 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.

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. Earlier there was an informal way of preventing duplication, at least between Sweden and Finland. Swedish plates began with letters A up to L, (except I). Finland used the initial letters I and T through Z. In the last ten years, however, Sweden has begun using initial letters previously reserved for Finland (T and up, although some overlapping with B, for example, had occurred earlier).
• Norway and Denmark use two letters and five digits. The plates look very similar, but Denmark has a red border around the plate. Denmark has begun running out of combinations in this style. Use of the country code on the plate may mitigate this problem (Norway began using the system on 1 November 2006).
• The Netherlands and Portugal both use three groups of two characters (letters or numbers) in several sequencies: AA-99-99, 99-99-AA, 99-AA-99, AA-99-AA, etc. However, Portuguese plates have a white field, while those of Netherlands have a yellow one. Furthermore, plates on Dutch vehicles only contain consonants, to avoid coincidental abbrevations or words. 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 is expected to be used up sometime in 2008. By then, new registered cars in the Netherlands will use the following format of two digits-three letters-one digit ( 99-DDD-9 ).

Differing numbering systems

Individual EU member states still use differing numbering schemes and text fonts:

• Most countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (formerly also Italy, Lithuania and Spain), 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). Some countries (e.g. Slovenia, Austria and Switzerland - although the latter is not member of the EU) even include a regional or municipal coat of arms on the plate (see Region (EU)).
• France (until 2008) 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, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden use plates which do not denote location.

Future common EU numbering systems may denote the town or region of registration, using a three-letter code.

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. 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.

See: European Commission Passenger car taxation, European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA)

Gallery of EU States

State	Abbreviations	Examples
Austria	A
Belgium	B
Bulgaria	BG
Cyprus	CY
Czech Republic	CZ
Denmark	DK
Estonia	EST
Finland	FIN
France	F
Germany	D
Greece	GR
Hungary	H
Ireland	IRL	File:07D.jpg
Italy	I
Latvia	LV
Lithuania	LT
Luxembourg	L
Malta	M
Netherlands	NL
Poland	PL	File:LBL77RN.jpg
Portugal	P
Romania	RO
Slovakia	SK
Slovenia	SLO	File:Slowenien-SloveniaKfz.jpg
Spain	E
Sweden	S	File:License plate Sweden.jpg
United Kingdom	GB

Notes: Some motorists in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (constituent countries within the United Kingdom) use EU-style plates with their national flag and the codes SCO, CYM and NIR respectively. Although not officially recognised, they are permitted by the UK government as an expression of national pride. Some motorists in England have started to display ENG codes in response to this fashion..

Gallery

• 
  United States military in Germany plates
• 
  Manx (not in the EU) car registration plate
• 
  Polish plates. New with EU stars and old issued before May 2006.
• 
  Lithuanian plate issued shortly before EU membership
• 
  A plate from Andorra.
• 
  Faroese number plate issued since 1996 (not in the EU).
• 
  A number plate from Iceland (not in the EU)
• 
  EUR vehicle registration plate: Belgian plates for European Commission officials
• 
  Moldovan registration plate
• 
  Norwegian number plate
• 
  Russian registration from Moscow
• 
  Swiss license plate from Zurich
• 
  San Marino license plate
• 
  Kosovo license plate
• 
  Turkish license plate

See also

• Vehicle registration plate
• List of international license plate codes

• Albanian car number plates
• Austrian car number plates
• Belgian car number plates
• Bulgarian car number plates
• British car number plates
• Croatian car number plates
• Czech car number plates
• Danish car number plates
• Dutch vehicle registration plates
• Estonian car number plates
• Finnish car number plates
• French vehicle registration plates
• German car number plates
• Greek car number plates
• Hungarian car numbers
• Icelandic car number plates
• Irish vehicle registration plates
• Italian car number plates
• Latvian car number plates
• Lithuanian car number plates
• Luxemburgish car number plates
• Macedonian car number plates
• Montenegrin car number plates
• Norwegian car number plates
• Polish car number plates
• Portuguese car number plates
• Romanian car number plates
• Russian car number plates
• Serbian car number plates
• Slovak car registration plates
• Slovenian car number plates
• Spanish car number plates
• Swedish licence plates
• Swiss car number plates
• Turkish car number plates
• Ukrainian car number plates