European vehicle registration plates

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Many member states of the European Union issue vehicle registration plates based on a common EU format. The EU format is optional in Finland, France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Cyprus, Belgium and Denmark have not yet implemented the EU format. [1]

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 yellow plates are used for taxi vehicles. Belgium uses red characters. In Norway cars with front seats only have green plates with black characters.

A common design consists of a blue strip on the left of the plate. This blue strip has the European flag motif (12 yellow stars), along with the country code of the member state in which the vehicle was 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.

1 Common letter and digit systems between countries
2 Differing numbering systems
3 Registration taxes
4 Gallery
5 See also

[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, Finland, 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 first letters I and T through Z. In the last ten years, however, Sweden has begun using first letters previously reserved to Finland (T and up, although some collisions with e.g. B has occurred also earlier).^{[citation needed]}
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).
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.

[edit] Differing numbering systems

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

Most countries, including Austria, the Baltic countries, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia (formerly also Italy 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, Switzerland) 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.

[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.

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

Czech plate since 2002	Car registration plates from France, as observed 2004.	Car registration plate from Germany, as observed 2005.	United States military in Germany plates
Licence plate from Sweden	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
Danish plate issued in 1998 (also showing the country sticker). The same format is still used. Number plates with EU logo are not available.	A plate from Andorra.	Faroese number plate issued since 1996 (not in the EU).	Bulgarian number plate
Irish number plate	Norwegian number plate	EUR vehicle registration plate: Belgian plates for European Commission officials	Portuguese new model licence plate with Euroband and date of issue