EU license plate plans not well received

The European Parliament is currently discussing plans to have one unified license plate system across the whole of Europe and it’s not going down well with some British politicians. The thought behind the idea is to make travel around Europe easier for motorists, to make the process of registering a car in a different country simpler, and to make it easier to buy cars from other European countries too.

However, us Brits are very happy with our current license plate system, and recent surveys show that most of us would not welcome such a change; we’ve had our British license plates for 110 years and we’re not going to let go of them without a fight. Leader of the Conservative MEPs Syadd Kamall states that he will be fighting the plan all the way. He also objects to the fact that any new plate design would include the EU flag. Mr Kamall suggests that a better alternative would be to develop a system of guidelines instead, to bring the plates of other countries more in-line with British plates as already many countries have based their license plate systems on the British design. We’ll keep you informed of any new developments.

The DVLA have issued the following statement,

“We are aware of today’s articles regarding the EU proposal to standardise the design of vehicle registration numbers.

The Agency has been advised by DfT that there are no proposals being drawn up by the EU Commission to introduce a European standardised number plate format. Neither the Commission nor any other EU countries are pursuing this idea. It is just one MEP suggesting that the Commission could consider this idea in the future. The UK Government does not support this amendment, the idea is not going to go anywhere. “

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