
COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 2411/98 of 3 November 1998 on the recognition in intra-Community traffic of the distinguishing sign of the Member State in which motor vehicles and their trailers are registered 

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 75(1)(d) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189c of the Treaty,

(1) Whereas the Community has adopted a certain number of measures that are intended to ensure the smooth functioning of an internal market comprising an area without frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty;

(2) Whereas several Member States are contracting parties to the Vienna Convention of 1968 on road traffic, hereinafter referred to as the ‘Convention’, Article 37 of which provides that every motor vehicle in international traffic shall display at the rear, in addition to its registration number, a distinguishing sign of the State in which it is registered;

(3) Whereas the Community is not a contracting party to the convention and whereas some of its Member States which are parties to it have recourse to the provisions of Article 37 of the Convention; whereas those Member States thus require vehicles from other Member States to display the distinguishing sign provided for by Annex 3 to the Convention; whereas some of those Member States do not recognise other distinguishing signs such as those displayed on registration plates which, while indicating the Member State in which the vehicle is registered, do not conform to Annex 3 to the Convention;

(4) Whereas several Member States have introduced a model registration plate which, on the extreme left, displays a blue zone containing the 12 yellow stars representing the European flag plus the distinguishing sign of the Member State of registration; whereas for the purpose of intra-Community transport this distinguishing sign meets the objective of identifying the State of registration as provided for in Article 37 of- the Convention;

(5) Whereas Member States requiring vehicles from other Member States to display the distinguishing sign of the State of registration should also recognise the sign as provided for in the Annex to this Regulation,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1 
This Regulation shall apply to vehicles registered in the Member States that are driven within the  United Kingdom.
Article 2 
For the purposes of this Regulation:

1.. ‘distinguishing sign of the Member State of registration’ shall mean a set composed of one to three letters in Latin capitals indicating the Member State in which the vehicle is registered;
2.. “vehicle” means any power-driven vehicle, including its trailer if any, which is normally used for:

 — carrying persons or goods by road, or
 — for drawing on the road vehicles used for the carriage of persons or goods,but does not include vehicles, such as agricultural or forestry tractors, which are only incidentally used for such purposes, vehicles which run on rails or mobile machinery.
Article 3 
The United Kingdom shall recognise the distinguishing sign of the Member State of registration displayed on the extreme left of the registration plate of a vehicle in accordance with the Annex to this Regulation as being equivalent to any other distinguishing sign that it recognises for the purpose of identifying the State in which the vehicle is registered.
Article 4 
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...Done at Brussels, 3 November 1998.
For the Council
The President
B. PRAMMER
ANNEX
SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE DISTINGUISHING SIGN OF THE MEMBER STATE OF REGISTRATION TO BE AFFIXED AT THE EXTREME LEFT OF THE REGISTRATION PLATE
