COMMON POSITION (EC) No 38/98 adopted by the Council on 5 June 1998 with a view to adopting Council Regulation (EC) No . . ./98 of . . . on the recognition in intra-Community traffic of the distinguishing sign of the Member State in which motor vehicles and their trailers are registered (98/C 227/04)

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 (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2),

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189c of the Treaty (3),

(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 (4), 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 intoduced 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 Community.

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` shall mean any motor vehicle and its trailer as defined in:

- Council Directive 70/156/EEC of 6 February 1970 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers (5),

- Council Directive 92/61/EEC of 30 June 1992 relating to the type-approval of two or three-wheel motor vehicles (6).

Article 3

Member States requiring vehicles registered in another Member State to display a distinguishing registration sign when they are being driven on their territory shall recognise the distinguishing sign of the Member State of registration displayed on the extreme left of the registration plate in accordance with the Annex to this Regulation as being equivalent to any other distinguishing sign that they recognise for the purpose of identifying the State in which the vehicle is registered.

Article 4

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at . . .

For the Council

The President

(1) OJ C 290, 24.9.1997, p. 25.

(2) Opinion delivered on 28 January 1998 (OJ C 95, 30.3.1998, p. 32).

(3) Opinion of the European Parliament of 19 February 1998 (not yet published in the Official Journal), Council common position of 4 June 1998 and Decision of the European Parliament of . . . (not yet published in the Official Journal).

(4) Vienna Convention of 8 November 1968, concluded under the auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

(5) OJ L 42, 23.2.1970, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Directive 97/27/EC (OJ L 233, 25.8.1997, p. 1).

(6) OJ L 225, 10.8.1992, p. 72. Directive as amended by the 1994 Act of Accession.

ANNEX

SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE DISTINGUISHING SIGN OF THE MEMBER STATE OF REGISTRATION TO BE AFFIXED AT THE EXTREME LEFT OF THE REGISTRATION PLATE

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Colours:

(1) Retro-reflecting blue background

(Munsell reference 5,9 pb 3,4/15,1)

(2) 12 retro-reflecting yellow stars

(3) Retro-reflecting distinguishing sign of the Member State of registration, of a white or yellow colour

Composition and dimensions:

(1) Blue background:

height = minimum 98 mm

width = minimum 40 mm, maximum 50 mm

(2) The centres of the twelve stars to be arranged in a 15-mm radius circle; distance between two opposing peaks of any star = 4 to 5 mm

(3) Distinguishing sign of the Member State of registration:

height= minimum 20 mm

width of character stroke = 4 to 5 mm

Where the dimensions of the blue background have been reduced for registration plates taking up two lines (see model 2) and/or for registration plates intended for two or three-wheel motor vehicles, the dimensions of the stars and of the distinguishing sign of the Member State of registration may be proportionately reduced.

STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

On 15 July 1997 the Commission submitted to the Council a proposal for a Council Regulation on the recognition in intra-Community traffic of the distinguishing sign of the Member State in which motor vehicles and their trailers are registered (1). The proposal was based on Article 75(1)(d) of the EC Treaty.

The European Parliament delivered its opinion on the Commission proposal on 19 February 1998 (2) and the Economic and Social Committee's opinion was delivered on 28 January 1998 (3).

In the light of the European Parliament's opinion, the Commission submitted an amended proposal to the Council on 16 April 1998 (4).

On 5 June 1998, the Council adopted a common position in accordance with Article 189c of the EC Treaty.

II. AIMS OF THE PROPOSAL

1. In order to facilitate the free movement of persons within the Community, the proposal seeks to make provision for every vehicle registered in a Member State and displaying a distinguishing sign of the Member State of registration in accordance with the Annex to the proposal to move freely, with regard to its distinguishing sign, on the territory of another Member State if the latter requires identification of the vehicle's State of registration.

2. It will be remembered that at the end of the 1980s the Commission, together with government experts, defined a common model registration plate. A number of Member States have since incorporated that model in their national regulations either on a compulsory or an optional basis. The model plate displays on its extreme left a vertical blue zone containing at the top a circle of 12 yellow stars representing the Community flag and, at the bottom, the identifying letters of the Member State of registration.

3. Other provisions apply in other Member States as well as in Member States which have introduced the sign described in paragraph 2 on an optional basis; these are based on the Vienna Road Traffic Convention (5), which has been signed or ratified by several Member States.

This is the case with Article 37 of the Convention, and particularly Annex 3, which stipulates that the letters of the distinguishing sign of the Member State of registration should be in black within a white ellipse background and should not be incorporated in the registration number.

Pursuant to Article 37 and Annex 3 of the Vienna Convention, all contracting parties must, on the basis of the distinguishing sign, admit to international traffic on their territory vehicles registered in another State where such vehicles display at the rear, in addition to the registration number, the distinguishing sign of the State of registration, composed and affixed in accordance with the aforementioned provisions of the Convention.

4. Some Member States apply the above provisions of the Vienna Convention to any vehicle being driven on their territory; including those displaying the distinguishing sign as indicated in point 2, with fines being imposed if the vehicles do not display the elliptical sign laid down by the Convention.

5. The Commission has accordingly submitted the current proposal in order to oblige Member States which require the distinguishing sign provided for in the Vienna Convention also to recognise the distinguishing sign provided for in the Annex to the proposal, i.e. the sign described in point 2.

The proposal does not make it obligatory for vehicles registered in a Member State to display this sign. Nor does it aim to prevent vehicles registered in a Member State from displaying the distinguishing sign stipulated by Annex 3 to the Vienna Convention.

III. ANALYSIS OF THE COUNCIL'S COMMON POSITION

The Council's common position follows the Commission's amended proposal, which incorporates a number of amendments from the European Parliament, subject to the changes set out below:

- Article 1(1) (definition of the sign) and Article 3, as proposed by the Commission, oblige Member States which require vehicles registered in another Member State to display a distinguishing registration sign when they are being driven on their territory to recognise the sign displayed in accordance with the Annex to the Regulation. The Council's common position adapts these provisions so as not to prejudice any national provisions designed to recognise other distinguishing signs for the purpose of identifying a vehicle's State of registration,

- Article 4 of the proposal has been deleted. The Council felt that it was unnecessary to include a provision in this Regulation laying down a system of penalties to apply in the event of breaches of the Regulation,

- in addition to the model of the distinguishing sign set out in the Annex to the Regulation, the common position includes a second model for plates with registration numbers taking up two lines and for plates intended for two or three-wheel motor vehicles, as well as a provision which enables the dimensions of the stars and of the distinguishing sign to be proportionately reduced,

- the common position also adapts certain technical specifications in the Annex to the Regulation to take account of technical constraints.

IV. EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AMENDMENTS

1. The Council followed the amended Commission proposal by incorporating the content, if not the wording, of the following European Parliament amendments:

- in Article 2(1) and Article 3 (see section III, first indent), the common position includes the part of amendments 3 and 5 relating to the recognition by Member States not only of the sign displayed in accordance with the provisions of the Annex to the Regulation but also of any other distinguishing sign,

- in Article 2(2), the common position takes account of amendment 2 and the relevant parts of amendments 3 and 5 which are intended to ensure that the content of the Regulation applies also to trailers, as indicated in the title of the Regulation,

- in Article 3, the common position takes over the parts of amendments 3 and 5 referring to the obligation on Member States to recognise the sign displayed, in accordance with the provisions of the Annex, on the extreme left of the registration plate and conforming to the technical specifications of the Annex.

2. European Parliament amendments not adopted by the Council and not taken over by the Commission

The Council, in line with the amended Commission proposal, did not adopt:

- amendment 1, seeking to amend Article 1(1) of the Commission proposal (Article 2(1) of the common position) to include a reference in the definition of the sign to the place where the sign must be displayed i.e. on the extreme left of the plate.

The Council thought it best to follow the Vienna Convention in establishing a definition which referred only to the distinguishing sign of the State of registration, leaving it to other provisions (see Article 3) to stipulate the place where the sign had to be displayed,

- amendments 4 and 7, aimed at adding a new Annex to the Regulation, with a corresponding recital, obliging Member States also to recognise another distinguishing sign (ellipse). That sign would have consisted of a one, two or three-letter abbreviation for the Member State of registration, in white or yellow, within an ellipse surrounded by a circle of 12 yellow stars representing the Community flag.

The Council also rejected amendment 6 proposing changes to the fifth recital, and the parts of amendments 3 and 5 aimed at amending Article 3 to indicate that the Regulation contained two Annexes with two separate distinguishing signs.

For reasons of legal certainty, the Council felt that the adoption of provisions on the compulsory recognition of signs was possible only if signs were displayed in accordance with exact specifications set out in an Annex to the Regulation. In such a case, a sign incorporated in the registration plate itself constituted a kind of official document in that it was issued under the supervision of the competent authorities of the Member State of registration and could not be removed, which would not be the case with a sign affixed to the vehicle by the user on a medium other than the registration plate (e.g. by means of a sticker).

(1) OJ C 290, 24.9.1997, p. 25.

(2) OJ C 80, 16.3.1998, p. 212.

(3) OJ C 95, 30.3.1998, p. 32.

(4) OJ C 159, 26.5.1998, p. 16.

(5) Convention on Road Traffic, signed in Vienna on 8 November 1968, including the amendments which entered into force on 3 September 1993 (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe).