Why is the EU flag on every EU number plate

ewan whose army · 24-04-2014 4:33pm #1

Just a side point.

I never understood why every EU country has the EU flag on the license plate above the country code! Wouldn't it make more sense to have the flag of the country to help identify the car's country of origin?

bop1977 · 24-04-2014 4:37pm

The letters under the flag identify the country.

It also means you don't have to get one of the stickers with IRL on them when traveling abroad.

CiniO · 24-04-2014 4:39pm

ewan whose army wrote: »

Just a side point.

I never understood why every EU country has the EU flag on the license plate above the country code! Wouldn't it make more sense to have the flag of the country to help identify the car's country of origin?

Heh I thought recently about the same thing.
Poland introduced this EU shape number plates in year 2000 afair.
But at that time they had PL letters on the bottom of blue strip, and Polish flag on the top.
Once Poland joined EU in 2004, plates were changed for the ones with EU stars flag.

I also thing it would make much more sense to have each country's flag on the plate instead of EU flag.

ewan whose army · 24-04-2014 5:05pm

bop1977 wrote: »

The letters under the flag identify the country.

It also means you don't have to get one of the stickers with IRL on them when traveling abroad.

Why can't you have flags and letters?

I know in the UK you can but its invalid outside of the UK

slimjimmc · 24-04-2014 5:14pm

In fact in the UK it's not compulsory to even have the side badge at all.
In England, Scotland and Wales plates can officially bear the respective country's national flag, but it's entirely optional.
Likewise, UK vehicles can display the UK flag if they choose. These national plates are not recognised outside UK, hence the GB bumper sticker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_the_United_Kingdom,_Crown_dependencies_and_overseas_territories#Standard_plates

BMJD · 25-04-2014 12:38am

ewan whose army wrote: »

Just a side point.

I never understood why every EU country has the EU flag on the license plate above the country code! Wouldn't it make more sense to have the flag of the country to help identify the car's country of origin?

because you are an EU subject and you will do what the lads in Brussels tell you to do

keithclancy · 25-04-2014 7:46am

Never understood why the UK had "GB" on their license plates when Northern Ireland isn't even in Great Britain.

professore · 25-04-2014 7:53am

keithclancy wrote: »

Never understood why the UK had "GB" on their license plates when Northern Ireland isn't even in Great Britain.

There's an NI for Norn Iron.

hfallada · 25-04-2014 7:58am

CiniO wrote: »

Heh I thought recently about the same thing.
Poland introduced this EU shape number plates in year 2000 afair.
But at that time they had PL letters on the bottom of blue strip, and Polish flag on the top.
Once Poland joined EU in 2004, plates were changed for the ones with EU stars flag.

I also thing it would make much more sense to have each country's flag on the plate instead of EU flag.

Pretty much every European knows what the letters stand for eg IRL for Ireland, FR for France. But I can't tell what half the eastern European flags are and they are pretty much the same colour. The letters keep it simply

munchkin_utd · 25-04-2014 8:08am

hfallada wrote: »

Pretty much every European knows what the letters stand for eg IRL for Ireland, FR for France. But I can't tell what half the eastern European flags are and they are pretty much the same colour. The letters keep it simply

+1
and its far better to have an indication of the country built into the numberplate rather than a poxy sticker

It is optional though and you'd even see cars in Belgium or Germany without it.

keithclancy · 25-04-2014 8:23am

professore wrote: »

There's an NI for Norn Iron.

That has no bearing abroad (Actually I don't think its legal in the UK either) , you still need a 'GB' sticker according to the rules.

You only don't need the sticker if you have the GB Euro sign on the plate.

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/general_advice.html

https://www.gov.uk/displaying-number-plates/flags-symbols-and-identifiers

kuro2k · 25-04-2014 10:20am

hfallada wrote: »

Pretty much every European knows what the letters stand for eg IRL for Ireland, FR for France. But I can't tell what half the eastern European flags are and they are pretty much the same colour. The letters keep it simply

F = France

dr.fuzzenstein · 25-04-2014 10:27am

Slow day today? :P:D

CiniO · 25-04-2014 11:32am

keithclancy wrote: »

Never understood why the UK had "GB" on their license plates when Northern Ireland isn't even in Great Britain.

Those codes were issued long time ago, I'd say even before Republic of Ireland existed.

I think one of the reasons UK got issued GB code, was because in many languages name of "United Kingdom" is not used, instead "Great Britain" is in circulation. That's at least the case in Polish language. Official country name in Polish is "Wielka Brytania" which literally means "Great Britain".
I believe that's the case in plenty other languages.

CiniO · 25-04-2014 11:34am

hfallada wrote: »

Pretty much every European knows what the letters stand for eg IRL for Ireland, FR for France. But I can't tell what half the eastern European flags are and they are pretty much the same colour. The letters keep it simply

Hmm.
I don't believe you would recognise more than half letter signs of 28 EU countries.
So far in your two examples, you only got one right.

Flags could help in recognising, but obviously as you say - not many people know all the flags anyway.
However it would just look nice to have a flag for each country, instead of having the same stars on every number plate across the EU.

CiniO · 25-04-2014 11:38am

keithclancy wrote: »

That has no bearing abroad (Actually I don't think its legal in the UK either) , you still need a 'GB' sticker according to the rules.

You only don't need the sticker if you have the GB Euro sign on the plate.

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/general_advice.html

https://www.gov.uk/displaying-number-plates/flags-symbols-and-identifiers

I don't think it must be GB Euro sign.
GB sign with UK flag will do as well.
We can't use plate with Irish flag on it, as it's illegal in Irish law.
But as in UK it's legal to use GB sign with UK (or English, Welsh, Scottish, or NI) flag, then it should be ok to use it when driving abroad.

djimi · 25-04-2014 11:43am

CiniO wrote: »

I think one of the reasons UK got issued GB code, was because in many languages name of "United Kingdom" is not used, instead "Great Britain" is in circulation. That's at least the case in Polish language. Official country name in Polish is "Wielka Brytania" which literally means "Great Britain".
I believe that's the case in plenty other languages.

Great Britain is the island; Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain, so if thats the reason then they would have been wrong to do so! The official name of the state is the United Kingdom.

djimi · 25-04-2014 11:45am

CiniO wrote: »

However it would just look nice to have a flag for each country, instead of having the same stars on every number plate across the EU.

Agree with this. Not that it makes a difference either way, but it would be nice to maintain some of our national identity on the number plate rather than trying to lump us all under this umbrella of the EU (which I doubt many feel much real connection to; I know I certainly dont!).

CiniO · 25-04-2014 11:55am

djimi wrote: »

Great Britain is the island; Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain, so if thats the reason then they would have been wrong to do so! The official name of the state is the United Kingdom.

I know all that.
But as I mentioned - in other languages official name might be different, and probably is.
That could be the case for GB instead of UK on vehicle mark.

Marcusm · 25-04-2014 12:00pm

djimi wrote: »

Great Britain is the island; Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain, so if thats the reason then they would have been wrong to do so! The official name of the state is the United Kingdom.

I think you'll find that the official name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. If you're going to correct someone, best get it right.;)

Marcusm · 25-04-2014 12:02pm

CiniO wrote: »

I don't think it must be GB Euro sign.
GB sign with UK flag will do as well.
We can't use plate with Irish flag on it, as it's illegal in Irish law.
But as in UK it's legal to use GB sign with UK (or English, Welsh, Scottish, or NI) flag, then it should be ok to use it when driving abroad.

Actually, for NI only GB is permitted (counterintuitively perhaps). There is no alternative flag or designation permitted for NI.

CiniO · 25-04-2014 12:05pm

Marcusm wrote: »

Actually, for NI only GB is permitted (counterintuitively perhaps). There is no alternative flag or designation permitted for NI.

So you can have a blue strap with GB and Scottish flag on it legally, but you can't have one with GB and NI flag?

liamog · 25-04-2014 12:08pm

CiniO wrote: »

So you can have a blue strap with GB and Scottish flag on it legally, but you can't have one with GB and NI flag?

Well as there isn't an official NI Flag it makes sense.

CiniO · 25-04-2014 12:10pm

liamog wrote: »

Well as there isn't an official NI Flag it makes sense.

I didn't know that.

djimi · 25-04-2014 12:12pm

CiniO wrote: »

I know all that.
But as I mentioned - in other languages official name might be different, and probably is.
That could be the case for GB instead of UK on vehicle mark.

Perhaps. But I dont see why a country would elect to use a code based on another language (or languages) that basically has their official name translated incorrectly (if its true that some other languages do not have a direct translation of United Kingdom)?

djimi · 25-04-2014 12:13pm

Marcusm wrote: »

I think you'll find that the official name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. If you're going to correct someone, best get it right.;)

I really wasnt bothered typing all of that out; it still abbreviates to the same UK either way

CiniO · 25-04-2014 12:23pm

djimi wrote: »

Perhaps. But I dont see why a country would elect to use a code based on another language (or languages) that basically has their official name translated incorrectly

I think here's the main issue.
Those codes are not elected by countries.
They were issued by UN.

The allocation of codes is maintained by the United Nations as the Distinguishing Signs Used on Vehicles in International Traffic[3] (sometimes abbreviated to DSIT), authorised by the UN's Geneva Convention on Road Traffic of 1949 and the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic of 1968. Many vehicle codes created since the adoption of ISO 3166 coincide with ISO two- or three-letter codes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_license_plate_codes

(if its true that some other languages do not have a direct translation of United Kingdom)?

Hmm - in Poland official name is just "Wielka Brytania" which means "Great Britain". I can only guess this might be the case in some other countries as well.

CiniO · 25-04-2014 12:46pm

I gave it another tought.
And it actually makes sense.

Most countries use only short form for those abbreviations.

Official name of Ireland is Republic of Ireland, but the code is still IRL, not ROI.
Official name of Poland is "Rzeczpospolita Polska", but code is PL, not RP.
Same thing with UK - GB thing. Official name United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but instead of using UKGBNI or UK, they just use GB.

Makes sense to me.

keithclancy · 25-04-2014 12:53pm

CiniO wrote: »

I gave it another tought.
And it actually makes sense.

Most countries use only short form for those abbreviations.

Official name of Ireland is Republic of Ireland, but the code is still IRL, not ROI.
Official name of Poland is "Rzeczpospolita Polska", but code is PL, not RP.
Same thing with UK - GB thing. Official name United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but instead of using UKGBNI or UK, they just use GB.

Makes sense to me.

Official name of Ireland is Éire or Poblacht na hÉireann

So why is it not EI.

Seems like a hangover from the old days

ardmacha · 25-04-2014 1:20pm

CiniO wrote: »

Those codes were issued long time ago, I'd say even before Republic of Ireland existed.

I think one of the reasons UK got issued GB code, was because in many languages name of "United Kingdom" is not used, instead "Great Britain" is in circulation. That's at least the case in Polish language. Official country name in Polish is "Wielka Brytania" which literally means "Great Britain".
I believe that's the case in plenty other languages.

The UK is GB and its colonies.

aujopimur · 25-04-2014 1:30pm

The old Irish plate was EIR.

vickers209 · 25-04-2014 1:37pm

Why is spain letter E

Davyhal · 25-04-2014 1:40pm

vickers209 wrote: »

Why is spain letter E

The Spanish word for Spain is España

bulletbill · 25-04-2014 1:41pm

vickers209 wrote: »

Why is spain letter E

España

hi5 · 25-04-2014 2:17pm

aujopimur wrote: »

The old Irish plate was EIR.

As was SE

keithclancy · 25-04-2014 2:38pm

My feeling is that some drunk Civil Servant working for the UN ended up making up a list one night after one too many a brandy.

pcardin · 25-04-2014 2:50pm

hfallada wrote: »

But I can't tell what half the eastern European flags are and they are pretty much the same colour.

I'd say you have the same problem with western European flags too. :rolleyes:

Richard · 25-04-2014 4:05pm

professore wrote: »

There's an NI for Norn Iron.

Not legal though. I think GB was chosen to be the country code because the Ukraine and the United Kingdom both wanted UK - in the end Ukraine got UA and the United Kingdom got GB.

keithclancy · 25-04-2014 4:10pm

Richard wrote: »

Not legal though. I think GB was chosen to be the country code because the Ukraine and the United Kingdom both wanted UK - in the end Ukraine got UA and the United Kingdom got GB.

ISO 3166 from the looks of it

http://fonlow.com/zijianhuang/kpa/trancountry.html

slimjimmc · 25-04-2014 4:48pm

keithclancy wrote: »

Official name of Ireland is Éire or Poblacht na hÉireann

So why is it not EI.

Seems like a hangover from the old days

The official names are "Ireland" in the English language and "Éire" in the Irish language.
Perhaps they just settled on both initial letters to gave rise to IE when assigning a code, though I don't know if there was any reason why they couldn't have reversed them either.

PS: Poblacht na hÉireann in not an official name of the State but the official description in the Irish language.
1948 Act (Irish & English versions)
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1948/ga/act/pub/0022/print.html
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1948/en/act/pub/0022/print.html

Richard · 25-04-2014 4:49pm

djimi wrote: »

Great Britain is the island; Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain, so if thats the reason then they would have been wrong to do so! The official name of the state is the United Kingdom.

And the official ISO country code for the UK is GB. It isn't ideal but it is the official code.

The internet TLD .uk is one of the few examples where 'UK' is represented by UK.

SpaceTime · 25-04-2014 4:51pm

The UK should really be "UK"

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to use GB when GB doesn't actually technically include Northern Ireland.

There should be a policy to avoid picking politically divisive terms like that. Same with "Team GB".

Richard · 25-04-2014 4:55pm

ardmacha wrote: »

The UK is GB and its colonies.

Not sure if you're being serious here although no 'colonies' are in the UK.

Btw GBJ, GBG, GBM and GBZ are used for Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar respectively. The first three without EU stars, GBZ optionally with.

Richard · 25-04-2014 4:58pm

SpaceTime wrote: »

The UK should really be "UK"

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to use GB when GB doesn't actually technically include Northern Ireland.

There should be a policy to avoid picking politically divisive terms like that. Same with "Team GB".

I agree. There are other things like "Bank of England" which are also anachronistic but no one seems to be too bothered with changing them.

The UK driving licence does have "UK" surrounded by EU stars on it rather than GB.

CiniO · 25-04-2014 7:20pm

Richard wrote: »

Not legal though. I think GB was chosen to be the country code because the Ukraine and the United Kingdom both wanted UK - in the end Ukraine got UA and the United Kingdom got GB.

:eek:
I don't think Ukraine existed as a country before 1992.

GB code applies since 1910, so there couldn't possibly be any conflict between those countries in choosing codes.

CiniO · 25-04-2014 7:40pm

aujopimur wrote: »

The old Irish plate was EIR.

According to wikipedia Ireland used following codes-
1910-1924 - GB
1924-1938 - SE
1938-1962 - EIR
1962-now - IRL

Richard · 25-04-2014 8:08pm

CiniO wrote: »

:eek:

Eh?

I don't think Ukraine existed as a country before 1992.

The Ukranian Soviet Socialist Republic, whilst part of the Soviet Union had its own UN seat, allowing the Soviets to have an extra seat at the table. It used the UA code, although its cars used the SU code.

GB code applies since 1910, so there couldn't possibly be any conflict between those countries in choosing codes.

Fair enough, I suppose they didn't care so much about being accurate back then.

ewan whose army · 26-04-2014 8:39am

keithclancy wrote: »

Never understood why the UK had "GB" on their license plates when Northern Ireland isn't even in Great Britain.

Its the UK's ISO country code, it pre-dates the existence of Northern Ireland.

You are right though, NI isn't Britain since to be British you have to have come from the Ireland of Britain right?~

ewan whose army · 26-04-2014 8:41am

CiniO wrote: »

Hmm.
I don't believe you would recognise more than half letter signs of 28 EU countries.
So far in your two examples, you only got one right.

Flags could help in recognising, but obviously as you say - not many people know all the flags anyway.
However it would just look nice to have a flag for each country, instead of having the same stars on every number plate across the EU.

Thats what I thought, I mean what does the eu flag even symbolise anyway ? 12 stars? There are more than double that number in the EU so its pretty obsolete has been for 20-30 years now.

ewan whose army · 26-04-2014 8:42am

CiniO wrote: »

According to wikipedia Ireland used following codes-
1910-1924 - GB
1924-1938 - SE
1938-1962 - EIR
1962-now - IRL

EIR is still used in aviation, I am a private pilot and the Irish registered aircraft have EI-XXX are their registration (the UK is G-XXXX, France F-XXXX) etc.

ewan whose army · 26-04-2014 8:47am

SpaceTime wrote: »

The UK should really be "UK"

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to use GB when GB doesn't actually technically include Northern Ireland.

There should be a policy to avoid picking politically divisive terms like that. Same with "Team GB".

Technically (having a UK passport) the full name of the UK is "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" so I guess GB and UK have equal standing.

Funny if Scotland runs off then wouldn't GB be more inappropriate ?

Alot of people in Britain forget that NI is part of the UK and I guess the NI license plates look very different from the rest (For some reason they kept the old system in the 70s my Dad's friends classic Mustang has the old style UK ones which are like the NI ones ).

Turns out that the EU parliament are making every EU country have a common design of numberplate. But it was on the daily heil so it may be scremongering crap.

It did say that the EU would make the Irish and German standard of white and EU flags the standard... But from a road safety point of view I wonder if the UK, French and Dutch idea of having Orange on the back makes a car more visible from a distance...

Why is the EU flag on every EU number plate

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