Vehicle registration plates of Europe

Format

• 520 by 110 mm
• 520 by 120 mm

• 305 by 152 mm
• 305 by 160 mm
• 372 by 135 mm

• 330 by 140 mm in Andorra
• 440 by 120 mm in Finland
• 260 by 110 mm in Monaco
• 390 by 120 mm in San Marino
• 300 by 80 mm in Switzerland and Liechtenstein
• 360 by 110 mm in Italy
• 390 by 130 mm and 345 by 130 mm in Åland

  European Union

• The common design consists of a blue strip on the left side of the plate. This blue strip has the EU flag symbol, 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.
• EU format plates are either white or yellow, on a plate wider than it is tall. Yellow registration plates are used both front and rear in Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Denmark and Hungary use yellow plates for vehicles registered as commercial vehicles. Denmark implemented the EU format on a voluntary basis in 2009. 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.
• 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 to improve legibility.
• 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.

  Other countries

• Norway is an example of such a state, issuing europlates with the Norwegian flag replacing the circle of stars and the country code. In Norway, regular number plates are white with black characters, however, cars with front seats only have green plates with black characters. Norwegian registration plates are made of metal, but flat plastic plates has also been used earlier. Ukraine issues plates similar to the Norwegian ones, with the Ukrainian flag above the country code. Moldovan registration plates have a wider than usual blue band with the Moldovan flag and the international country code MD. Albanian number plates has a double-headed eagle above the country code.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina issues plates with a blue strip on the left side of the plate with the country code, but without the EU-stars or any other symbol. So does Turkey , Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.
• Iceland issues plates with the Icelandic flag above the country code on the left side, but without the blue strip. Iceland, however, is not party to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. Belarus issues plates similar to the Icelandic plates, with the national flag above the country code on the left side, but without the blue strip.
• Andorra and Monaco uses registration plates with their coat of arms above the respective country codes. San Marino issues similar plates but with the text "Repubblica di San Marino" underneath the coat of arms, instead of the country code.
• Of those states that joined in the 2004 enlargement of the European Union Malta already used europlates, while Latvia, Poland and Lithuania had used EU number plates displaying the national flag before their accession, as did Bulgaria and Romania before their accession in 2007.
• Vehicles registered in Great Britain are authorised by the nation's Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to use number plates featuring the national flag of England, Scotland or Wales, or alternatively the Union Flag, together with the code names "ENG", "Eng", "ENGLAND" or "England" for the English flag, "SCO", "Sco", "SCOTLAND" or "Scotland" for the Scottish flag, "CYM", "Cym", "CYMRU", "Cymru", "WALES" or "Wales" for the Welsh flag, "GB", "GREAT BRITAIN", "Great Britain", "UK","UNITED KINGDOM" or "United Kingdom” for the Union Flag respectively. Motorists with vehicles registered in Northern Ireland are not permitted to display the letters NI alongside any flag; only the Union Flag alongside GB/UK or the EU format, being optionally permitted.
• The UK government state that these are not recognised in other countries, and therefore a motorist who drives a vehicle abroad displaying these plates must also affix a "GB" sticker. However, after the UK ratified the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic in 2018, number plates with the distinguishing code "GB" featuring the Union Jack should be valid in other countries party to named convention, as such number plate displays a distinguishing code for the country of registration incorporated into the vehicle registration plate, and is supplemented with a flag or emblem of the national state, and hence satisfies the requirements set out in the convention.
• The British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar uses registration plates in the EU format. The Crown dependencies of Guernsey and Jersey and the Isle of Man have registration plates that are different from those used in the UK. Guernsey plates sometimes contain the letters GBG below the Guernsey flag on the left side. Jersey number plates may incorporate the coat of arms of Jersey in a white strip on the left, along with the country identifier GBJ, and since 2004 Manx plates may incorporate the Manx flag and the international country identification code GBM.
• Gibraltar and the United Kingdom uses yellow plates at the rear and white at the front. The United Kingdom use a mixture of flat plastic and metal plates

  Common letter and digit systems between countries

• Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Sweden, and Moldova each use combinations of first three letters and then three digits.
• Bulgaria uses plate numbers in the form 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.
• Greece uses a combination of three letters and four numbers, in the form of AAA-0000, while Spain uses a four number-three letter combination, in the form of 0000 BBB
• Denmark and Norway use two letters and five digits, 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. Denmark has begun running out of combinations in this style and has now introduced combinations previously reserved for the Faroe Islands for EU style number plates.
• The Netherlands and Portugal both use three groups of two characters in several sequences: AB-12-CD, 12-34-AB, 12-AB-34, AB-12-34, 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. New registered cars in the Netherlands now use the format of two digits-three letters-one digit.
• 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 European format 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 plates use two letters and four digits. Plates with 5 digits and 4 digits are also issued upon request. Older series with two letters and three digits, and one letter and 4 digits 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 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 are both of the form AB12 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, B123 AAA was issued to cars registered from August 1984 to August 1985. Aside from this, some county codes can clash.
• Until 1973/74 the Swedish pattern was one letter representing the län 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. The ABC 123 system was introduced gradually from July 1973 until June 1974.
• Slovakia uses MM 123AB and Croatia uses MM 123-AB or MM 1234-AB. Both countries use the national coat of arms after first two letters. Croatia uses only Croatian Latin letters without diacritics, except for city codes, like ČK for Čakovec.
• Montenegro and Serbia, currently not members of the EU, used the following: MM 12-34, MM 123-45 or MM 123-456, and having state flag 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 MM 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: BG 123 TX or BG 1234 TX and recently even BG 12345 TX, where a TX combination is reserved for this purpose only. Since 2017, Serbia stopped issuing plates with last two letters containing W, Q, Y, X, 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 1976-2000, in the UK, they were issued from 1963-1983, with those issued prior to 1973 being the same colour as their Polish counterparts. These plates are still valid in both countries.

  Differing numbering systems

• Most countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland, 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. 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 Slovakia include a national coat of arms. In Ireland, all plates have the name of the county of registration in Irish in smaller letters on the top.
• France, and Turkey and Russia 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 appears.
• The UK 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 "A" stands for Cardiff, and the "52" means that the car was registered in the period September 2002 to February 2003.
• Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden 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 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 an 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 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 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 uses "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 AB 9999 style plates since they used all combinations of previous series but the province Sivas for example, still issues 99 AB 999 plates as having a modest population and number of vehicles. 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. Also some letters combinations like "PKK" are not issued due to their referring to political organizations or words likely to cause offence.

  Cross-border traffic

• The physical requirements for the separate sign are defined in Annex 3 of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, which states that the letters shall be in black on a white background having the shape of an ellipse with the major axis horizontal. The distinguishing sign should not be affixed in such a way that it could be confused with the registration number or impair its legibility.
• When the distinguishing sign is incorporated into the registration plate, it must also appear on the front registration plate of the vehicle, and may be supplemented with the flag or emblem of the national state, or the emblem of the regional economic integration organisation to which the country belongs. The distinguishing sign should be displayed on the far left or far right on the registration plate. When a symbol/flag/emblem is also displayed, the distinguishing sign shall obligatory be placed on the far left on the plate. The distinguishing sign shall be positioned so to be easy identifiable and so that it cannot be confused with the registration number or impair its legibility. The distinguishing sign shall therefore be at least a different colour from the registration number, or have a different background colour to that reserved for the registration number, or be clearly separated from the registration number, preferably with a line.

List

Countries

Transcontinental countries

Dependencies and disputed territories

Timeline