The vast majority of European countries issue registration plates that are: • • This is one of the basic standard sizes worldwide. The others are: • , commonly issued to
import vehicles from North and Central America • • Some European countries use registration plates in other formats: • in
Andorra • in
Finland • in
Monaco • in
San Marino • in
Switzerland and
Liechtenstein (only front plates) • in Italy (only front plates) • and in
Åland European Union The common EU format of having a blue section on the extreme left with EU
circle of stars and the
country code was introduced by Council Regulation (EC) No 2411/98 of 3 November 1998 and entered into force on 11 November 1998. It was based on a model registration plate which three member states had already introduced: Ireland (1991),
Portugal (1992) and Germany (1994).
Luxembourg plates had displayed the EU flag on the left since 1988. Vehicles with registration plates in the EU format do not need to display the
white oval international vehicle registration code while within the
European Economic Area, or in countries party to the
Vienna Convention on Road Traffic (except if the plate is issued in Cyprus, Ireland, Malta and Spain, which are not party to the convention). • The common design consists of a blue strip on the left side of the plate. This blue strip has the
EU flag symbol (twelve yellow stars), along with the
country code of the member state in which the vehicle is registered. All EU countries now issue plates in the common format, but the use of the EU flag on registration plates is optional for member states. • EU member states that require foreign vehicles to display a distinguishing sign of the country of origin are obliged by Article 3 of EC 2411/98 to accept the standard design as a distinguishing sign when displayed on a vehicle registered in another member state. The requirement to display a distinguishing sign stems from the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, and the regulation is referencing the recognition of distinguishing signs according to that convention. Danish plates have a small holographic strip to the right of the blue EU strip. In
Greece,
Cyprus,
Latvia,
Lithuania and
Sweden yellow plates are used for taxi vehicles. In Poland yellow plates are used for historic vehicles. •
Belgium uses red characters and is the only country not to use the standard black-on-white or black-on-yellow combination; with the introduction of European-style plates in November 2010, a slightly darker shade of red was chosen (
RAL 3003) to improve legibility. • Of those states that joined in the
2004 enlargement of the European Union Malta already used EU format plates, while Latvia, Poland and Lithuania had used plates displaying the
national flag before their accession, as did
Bulgaria and
Romania before their
accession in 2007. • Most European countries use metal plates, however France and Ireland use a mixture of flat plastic and metal plates. Flat plastic plates have earlier also been used in Sweden. • The plate must be at +/-5° to the longitudinal plane of the vehicle. Lower edge must be higher than 0.3m and upper edge lower than 1.2m.
Other countries Several non-EU European states have implemented formats similar to the EU format, with national flags or symbols, plus the country code. Vehicles with such registration plates, issued in countries party to the
Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, do not need to display the
white oval international vehicle registration code while within countries signatory to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. effectively making all "GB" plates with the European circle of stars invalid for use abroad. In
England,
Scotland, and
Wales, registration plates may include one of the following flags with identifying letters on the left-hand side: • The
English flag may be accompanied by "ENG," "Eng," "ENGLAND," or "England." • The
Scottish flag may be accompanied by "SCO," "Sco," "SCOTLAND," or "Scotland." • The
Welsh flag may be accompanied by "CYM," "Cym," "CYMRU," "Cymru," "WALES," or "Wales." • The
Union Flag may be displayed with "GB," "GREAT BRITAIN," "Great Britain," "UK," "UNITED KINGDOM," or "United Kingdom."If a national flag is displayed, a "UK" sticker must be affixed to the rear when driving abroad. • Bulgaria uses plate numbers in the form A[A] 0000 AA, i.e. one or two letters representing the region, then four digits, then two more letters. All letters used are intersection of Latin and Cyrillic alphabet, i.e. A, B, C, E, H, K, M, O, P, T, X and Y. The same format is in use in Ukraine since 2004; it was also used in France until 2009 and in Spain until 2000 (but still valid, called "sistema provincial"). • Estonia uses a combination of three digits followed by three letters, in the format 000 AAA. Spain uses a similar four number-three letter combination, in the form of 0000 BBB (vowels and some possibly confusing consonants, like Ñ and Q, are not used) • France (since 2009), Albania, Italy and Slovakia (since 2023) use a combination of three digits and four letters, in the format AA 000 AA (French plates also include hyphens), while Hungary uses a similar format (AA AA-000) since 2022. • Greece uses a combination of three letters (before only two) that are
homoglyphs of Latin letters, i.e. A, B, E, Z, H, I, K, M, N, O, P, T, Y, X in Greek alphabetic order) and four digits, in the form of AAA-0000, while Latvia uses a similar format with two letters and four digits (AA-0000). • Denmark and Norway use two letters and five digits (AB 12345), while trailers use two letters and four 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 the Faroe Islands for EU style registration plates (which will use different letters from non-EU style plates).
Liechtenstein and
Vatican City use the same format, but with fixed letter combinations — FL () and CV (). Liechtenstein is also the only country in Europe to issue standard registration plates with a black background and white characters. • The Netherlands (until 2008) 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-12-34, etc. However, Portuguese plates since 90s have a white background, while those of Netherlands (after 1 January 1978) 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. New registered cars in the Netherlands now use the format of three letters-two digits-one letter (ABC-12-D). • Belgium used the sequence ABC-123 between 1973 and 2008. When these combinations ran out in 2008, the inverse sequence 123-ABC was adopted, with the first plate in the new series issued on 25 June 2008. With the introduction of the EU format registration plates on 15 November 2010, a seven-character combination 1-ABC-234 is used and the previous 123-ABC was discontinued. However, the six-character plates will remain valid, and no date is set for their expiration. Since Belgian plates are linked to an owner rather than to a vehicle, these older plates are likely to remain in use for a considerable time. As a way to phase out the six-character plates, future vehicle subscriptions will only be possible on the seven-character plates. Private numbers, not following any notation, are also allowed. • Luxembourg standard registration plates use two letters and four digits, similar to those of Latvia (AB 1234). Plates with 5 digits (12345) and 4 digits (1234) are also issued upon request. Older series with two letters and three digits (AB 123), and one letter and 4 digits (A 1234) are no longer issued but are still in use. Special plates for diplomats, the government, the grand-ducal family, military vehicles and temporary registrations exist and follow
specific rules. Two letters and three digits (AB 123) is also used in Northern Cyprus, and until 1973 it was used on the entire island of Cyprus. • Current registrations allocated in
Romania and the United Kingdom (where the registration contains two digits) are both of the form AB 12 CDE. The Romanian rear plates are white whereas UK ones are yellow. There is also a difference in the spacing and the font. In 2010, Bucharest, the capital of Romania, adopted the form B 123 AAA, three digits and three letters, because the number of cars had risen. In the United Kingdom, B 123 AAA was issued to cars registered from August 1984 to August 1985. Aside from this, some county codes can clash (MH, in Romania it stands for
Mehedinți, and in the United Kingdom, it stands for
Manchester). • Until 1973/74 the Swedish pattern was one letter representing the
län (county) where the car was first registered, followed by four or five digits. However, in the more populated län, a second letter was introduced over time. For example, vehicles from southernmost county got the letter M + five digits, later also MA + five digits, MB + five digits etc. A problem was that the two northernmost counties had already been given two letters, the letter prefixes AC and BD, as the number of counties exceeded the number of usable letters. This system gave similar numbers as Denmark and Norway. The ABC 123 system was introduced gradually from July 1973 until June 1974. All vehicles had to switch plates, the old were not permitted after this. •
Serbia,
Slovenia and
Croatia use MM 000-AA, where MM stands for a city or a municipality. Additionally, Croatia and Serbia issue plates with four digits (MM 0000-AA) in large cities such as
Zagreb and
Belgrade, while Croatia also uses MM 0000-A. Besides the first format, Slovenia also issues: MM 00-AAA, MM A0-00A and MM AA-000. Serbia and Croatia use the national coat of arms after the municipality code, while Slovenia uses the coats of arms of individual districts (administrative units).
Austria uses a reverse format of the Slovene license plates where MM stands for a
district, while the coats of arms indicate a
federal state. Croatia uses only
Croatian Latin letters without diacritics, (except for city codes, like ČK for
Čakovec), while Serbia uses Latin characters for municipality codes and dubs Cyrillic characters in a smaller font. Slovakia also used this format until 2023, while
Montenegro uses a reverse format, MM AA 000 •
Montenegro and
Serbia, not members of the EU, used the following: MM 12-34, MM 123-45 or MM 123-456 (MM being two letter abbreviation of
municipality), and having state flag (of
former Yugoslavia, later
Serbia and Montenegro) between municipality and numbers. Montenegro left that system in 2007, and introduced new format: MM AB 123 with
Montenegrin coat of arms in circular shape between municipality and letter sequence. Blue strip with MNE country code is placed in the left side, with vacant place for EU stars, in case of joining the Union. Serbia also uses new system since 2011, with blue strip country code SRB: MM 123-AB and BG 1234-AB, with
Serbian coat of arms between municipality and number sequence. The first two letters on the Serbian plates represent the municipality code, written in Latin letters, and repeated in Cyrillic characters with small letters under the coat of arms. The following system is used for taxi vehicles: MM 123 TX, NS 1234 TX and BG 12345 TX, where a TX combination is reserved for this purpose only (another taxi vehicles have private vehicle plates). Since 2017, Serbia stopped issuing plates with last two letters containing W, Q, Y, X (except TX), Č, Ć, Š, Ž, and Đ, however Serbian Latin letters with diacritics are still used to mark the municipality code, like ČA for
Čačak or ŠA for
Šabac. • Poland and the United Kingdom have both used AAA 123A. In Poland these were issued from 1976 to 2000, in the UK, they were issued from 1963 to 1983, with those issued prior to 1973 being the same colour as their Polish counterparts (white on black). While in United Kingdom black plates are still valid, Polish black registration plates remain valid unless the vehicle bearing such license plates changes ownership. In Poland, this format was applied to state-owned vehicles until 1991 (vehicles owned by private parties had license plates with the AAA 1234 format), and it was eventually also applied to other vehicles until 2000.
Differing numbering systems Individual European countries use differing numbering schemes and text
fonts: • Most countries, including
Austria,
Bulgaria,
Croatia, the
Czech Republic, Germany,
Greece, Ireland,
Montenegro,
North Macedonia,
Norway,
Poland,
Romania,
Serbia,
Slovenia and
Switzerland (formerly also Sweden until 1974, Italy until 1994,
Bosnia and Herzegovina until 1998, Spain until 2000,
Estonia and
Lithuania until 2004,
Albania until 2011 and
Slovakia until 2023, also former countries
East Germany until 1990,
Soviet Union until 1991,
Czechoslovakia until 1993,
Yugoslavia until 1998 and
Serbia and Montenegro until 2011), 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,
"BG" and
"KG" in Serbia for
Belgrade and
Kragujevac and "
AX" and "
KY" in Greece for
Achaea and
Corfu). Some countries, including Austria, Germany, Slovenia, and Switzerland, even include a regional or municipal coat of arms on the plate, but Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Lithuania (from November 2023) include a national coat of arms. In Ireland, all registration plates have the name of the county of registration in Irish in smaller letters on the top. • France (until 2009), and Turkey and Russia (since October 2013) use a system with an indirect number relation to the car's place of registration. Formerly in France, the last two characters on a plate comprised the
departmental code of registration. This pattern was discontinued, but in response to popular outcry, France added a second colour bar, on the right edge of the plate, where the departmental code (no longer a part of the registration number) appears. The Turkish system has since (around early 2018) been overridden by most provinces giving out three letter-three number codes (99 XXX 000) in alphabetical order, regardless of province subdivisions. • The United Kingdom uses a
system based on the region where the car was first registered and the date of registration, for example CA52 GJK, where the "
C" stands for
Wales (the name of that country in
Welsh being
Cymru), the "
A" stands for
Cardiff (the letters A-O assigned to the city), and the "
52" means that the car was registered in the period September 2002 to February 2003. •
Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Denmark,
Iceland, Estonia (after 2004),
Finland,
Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania (after 2004),
Luxembourg, the
Netherlands,
Portugal,
Slovakia (after 2023) and Sweden (after 1974) use plates that do not denote the location where the car is registered. Since 2000 Spain no longer uses province codes on plates but codes like 'B' for
Barcelona or 'M' for
Madrid can still be seen, for cars registered before that date. Italy, also, did not use the province codes on plates between 1994 and 1999. • Italy, since 1999, has added a blue strip on either side. On the right one are the two digits of the year when the plate was issued (e.g. "99", "05", "08") and below that there may be an optional two-letter code for the province, such as "MO" for the
Province of Modena. Albania and France have adopted similar formats. • Portuguese registration plates since late 1998 have a yellow strip on the right side, with one number at the top and another at the bottom separated by a line, respectively the year and month of the vehicle's registration. This strip was discontinued for the new registration plates issued since March 2020. • Irish registration plates also contain the year in which the vehicle was registered. A car registered in 2008 would have the format 08-XX-XXXX. In 2013, this was updated to specify which half of the year the registration occurred. So from January to June, the registration plate would show (for 2018) 181-XX-XXXX, whereas from July to December, the plate instead shows 182-XX-XXXX. •
Turkish registration plates consist of letters and digits in combinations of 99 AB 999, 99 A 9999, 99 ABC 99, 99 AB 9999 or 99 A 99999 where the first two digits show which province the vehicle is registered from. First two digits numbers go from 01 to 81 (as there are 81
provinces in Turkey) and each one is assigned to a province with alphabetical order e.g. 01 is the code of the province
Adana or 34 is the code of the province
Istanbul. All 81 provinces used to use "01 AB 123" style plates initially until all combinations ran out, then the province starts to use 01 A 1234 then 01 ABC 12 etc. As a result, three largest provinces i.e. Istanbul,
Ankara and
İzmir are currently issuing 99 ABC 999 style plates. 99 A 99999 series are not regular since they are only used in provinces where commercial vehicles are abundant e.g. Bursa to distinguish these vehicles there from passenger cars. Letters "I" and "O" are only used in the middle 01 ABC 12 series e.g. 34 YOC 34 or 06 TIL 56 to avoid confusion with numerals "1" and "0" respectively. As an exception to this rule, there is a "HO" series that is only granted to privately operated city buses (
halk otobüsleri in
Turkish). Also some letters combinations like "PKK" are not issued due to their referring to political organisations or words likely to cause offence.
Electric vehicles Several European countries have introduced special registration plates for
electric vehicles, such as
Hungary and
Poland which issue plates with a green background;
Germany which adds an E identifier to standard plates;
Ireland which has introduced a green stripe to the right-hand side of registration plates;
Romania which uses green lettering, Norway uses EL, EK, EV, EB, EC, ED, EE, EF, EH, EJ, EN, EP or ER as the first two letters on registration plates,
Czech Republic, which uses EL as the first two letters. Since late 2015
Latvia uses registration plates with blue lettering on white background to identify zero-emission (fully electric or hydrogen-electric hybrid) vehicles. In the United Kingdom vehicles with a Zero Emission value are allowed to display a green band on the left hand side of the plate, where the country identifier would usually sit. This is optional, and may be blank, or combined with the existing national flag options. Other countries such as the
Netherlands and
Sweden make no special distinctions for electric vehicles. ==Cross-border traffic==