European number plates: codes, letters and look

Q: How to perform a European number plate check?

There is no integrated system to check a number plate at European level at this point. One should check the available tools and resources in the country of origin to check a car by number plate.

Publié par Benoit Ginet-6 min de lecture ⏳

Le 26/01/2023-Mis à jour le 23/01/2026

Are you wondering what a MK European number plate is? FIN? EST? All those letters have, of course, a meaning. Not only we will cover all the European number plate codes and letters. But also, find out about the visual aspect of all those car plates. With this resource, identifying all European number plates will be as easy as 1, 2, 3 when driving in France!

How to read European union number plate codes?

On some car plates, flags can help us identify the country of origin of a vehicle. But it’s far from always being the case! Indeed, EU license plates display the EC stars. In that case, we must rely on European number plate letters to understand where a car is registered. Here is the full list of the car plates codes in the European union:

Code	Country	How does it look like
A	Austria	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘A’ and yellow stars.
B	Belgium	White background, ruby red letters, blue EU strip with ‘B’.
BG	Bulgaria	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘BG’ and Bulgarian flag.
CY	Cyprus	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘CY’.
CZ	Czech Republic	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘CZ’.
D	Germany	White background, black letters (FE-Schrift), blue EU strip with ‘D’.
DK	Denmark number plate	White background with red border, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘DK’.
E	Spain	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘E’.
EST	Estonia	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘EST’.
F	France	White background, black letters, blue EU strip (‘F’) and regional strip.
FIN	Finland	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘FIN’.
GB	Great Britain (UK)	Yellow (rear) or White (front), black letters, optional national flags.
GR	Greece	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘GR’.
H	Hungary	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘H’.
HR	Croatia	White background, black letters, Croatian coat of arms, blue EU strip.
I	Italy	White background, black letters, blue strips on both sides (left: ‘I’).
IRL	Ireland	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘IRL’, Irish name above.
L	Luxembourg	Yellow background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘L’.
LT	Lithuania	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘LT’.
LV	Latvia	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘LV’.
M	Malta	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘M’.
NL	Netherlands	Yellow background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘NL’.
P	Portugal	White background, black letters, blue EU strip (‘P’) and date strip (right).
PL	Poland	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘PL’.
RO	Romania	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘RO’.
S	Sweden	White background, black letters, blue EU strip with ‘S’.
SK	Slovakia	White background, black letters, coat of arms, blue EU strip with ‘SK’.
SLO	Slovenia	White background with green border, black letters, coat of arms, blue EU strip.

European car number plate country codes (outside UE)

Here are now all the missing European car license plate codes related to non EU countries that are part of the geographical Europe:

Code	Country	How does it look like
AL	Albania	White background, black letters, blue strips on both sides
AM	Armenia	White background, black letters, Armenian flag and ‘AM’ on the left.
AZ	Azerbaijan	White background, black letters, Azerbaijan flag and ‘AZ’ on the left.
AND	Andorra	White background, black letters, coat of arms and ‘AND’ on the left.
BIH	Bosnia and Herzegovina	White background, black letters, blue strip on the left (no stars).
BY	Belarus	White background, black letters, Belarus flag and ‘BY’ on the left.
FO	Faroe Islands	White background, blue letters, Faroese flag and ‘FO’ on the left.
GEO	Georgia	White background, black letters, Georgian flag and ‘GE’ on the left.
FL	Liechtenstein	Black background, white/silver letters, coat of arms in the center.
MC	Monaco	White background, blue letters, coat of arms and year on the left.
MD	Moldova	White background, black letters, coat of arms and ‘MD’ on the left.
MNE	Montenegro	White background, black letters, coat of arms and ‘MNE’ on the left.
N	Norway	White background, black letters, blue strip with Norwegian flag and ‘N’.
NMK	North Macedonia	White background, black letters, blue strip with ‘NMK’.
TR	Turkey	White background, black letters, blue strip with ‘TR’ on the left.
IS	Iceland	White background, blue letters, Icelandic flag and ‘IS’ on the left.
CH	Switzerland	White background, black letters, coat of arms of Switzerland and Canton.
RKS	Kosovo	White background, black letters, blue strip with ‘RKS’ and map.
RSM	San Marino	White background, blue letters, coat of arms and ‘RSM’ on the left.
RUS	Russia	White background, black letters, Russian flag and ‘RUS’ on the right.
SRB	Serbia	White background, black letters, coat of arms, blue strip with ‘SRB’.
UA	Ukraine number plate	White background, black letters, blue/yellow strip with ‘UA’.
UK	United Kingdom license plate	Yellow (rear) or White (front), black letters, blue/green/national strips.

Characteristics of European license plates, how do they look like?

European union blank number plate template

From the Portugal plate to Kazakhstan via Andorra, Iceland, Lithuania or Hungary, we can see how they look like thanks to the map above. This particularly concise overview allows to draw lessons regarding the appearance of number plates in Europe. As we can see, white backgrounds largely predominate. Some countries and territories use yellow plates, including Great Britain, Luxembourg or Gibraltar. Black is rare, it is used by the Channel Islands and Liechtenstein (white characters).

European Union plates largely follow the French model, if we ignore the French right stripe that is shared with Italy:

Left stripe: blue with the EU stars + European number plate country code (see liste above)
Plate number

A territorial identifier sometimes separates the registration number (Croatia, Austria…), sometimes it is placed on the far right, as for the registration plate of France or Italy. It is noteworthy to mention that the blue “euroband” is compulsory on the left for the countries of the European Union. Some countries, apparently eager to join the Union, have already added it, for example Serbia.

Among the atypical plates, we note the Belgian license plate, which sports a red edge and red characters. The country is the only one to use red in Europe. Blue is used by 3 territories: Aland (autonomous Finnish archipelago), Monaco and San Marino.

The design of those plates can be altered in case of special series. For example, official number plates or personalised license plate.

The shortest and longest license plates in Europe

As far as the number plate with the shortest number is concerned, Monaco wins the competition with a 4-character code (see below). This is better than the Vatican, whose plates are made up of at least 7 characters (CV + 5 digits for individuals). The longest car number plates are from Ireland (9 characters).

FAQ European number plate codes

What is an MK European number plate?

MK was the Makedonia code. Since the renaming of the country to North Makedonia, the code is now NMK.

What European number plate is E?

Spain.

How to perform a European number plate check?

There is no integrated system to check a number plate at European level at this point. One should check the available tools and resources in the country of origin to check a car by number plate.

What European country has yellow license plates?

UK, Luxembourg, Netherlands and small British Overseas Territories, such as Gibraltar have yellow number plates as standard colour.

How do European license plates work?

There is no European license plates as such. Each country has its own system. They just shared some layout similarities, such as the size and the presence of a blue strip on the left side.

What is B on a European number plate?

It means the vehicle is registered in Belgium.

CY European number plate?

It means Cyprus.

D on European number plate?

It is a German license plate.

HR European number plate?

HR country code is Croatia.

S European license plate?

S is for Sweden.

TR European number plate

TR is Turkey or Türkiye.

A European license plate?

A is for Austria.

Une question ?

Nous vous répondrons dans les meilleurs délais.

Les questions des utilisateurs

au cours des 12 derniers mois

Solmaz Demirer
26 février 2026
Merhaba,

C15N00 nolu plaka nereye ait. Sarı zemin üzerine siyah ile sadece bu yazıyordu bitişik yazılmıştı, yani hepsinin arasında eşit boşluk bırakılmış, sanırım 1cm. başka da birşey yoktu.
- Eplaque
  27 février 2026
  Sorry, we only speak English or French.
ceedee1550
20 février 2026
Plaque d'immatriculation blanche, deux lettres, deux chiffres, pas de mention « EU » à gauche, mais une bande rouge à droite avec ce qui ressemble à une date, par exemple 17 12 05 (deux chiffres l'un sous l'autre, 3 lignes) sur la bande rouge.

De quel pays cela pourrait-il provenir ?
- Eplaque
  23 février 2026
  Sans drapeau difficile à dire, mais habituellement une plaque avec une bande rouge et des dates (de validité) est une plaque temporaire.
Charles Robinson
9 décembre 2025
985JK ...cant find it anywhere ?
- Eplaque
  9 décembre 2025
  Could a personalized number plate or an older sequence. Best is to check the country code on the license plate.
Richard
17 novembre 2025
can you tell me what country plate WAF-RZ597 is from ?
- Eplaque
  18 novembre 2025
  This doesn't seem to match anything on the map above.
Jonh
12 novembre 2025
What country is the plate LA 241 H from?
- Eplaque
  13 novembre 2025
  The sequence is similar to the one used by a few Balkans countries, without more info it's hard to say.
Peter
19 octobre 2025
What country is the plate 27 RZ XP from...
- Eplaque
  20 octobre 2025
  If the plate is yellow, most likely it is an older Dutch license plate number.
Wendy Robinson
19 octobre 2025
Trying to identify which country this comes from

16 AYH 876.

The nearest i can see is Turkey but really not sure.
- Eplaque
  20 octobre 2025
  Yes, it should be a Turkish plate, from Bursa province (16).
Elise
27 septembre 2025
Where is the plate 890 Z-8636 from
- Eplaque
  29 septembre 2025
  We have no idea, sorry.
jordan
26 août 2025
What is vt on a red lettered number plate?
- Eplaque
  27 août 2025
  Hard to say without knowing the origin country. However, in many European countries red plates are transit plates. We doubt that VT would have a particular meaning.
Rk 16 vcm
25 août 2025
Trying to l locate someone
- Eplaque
  26 août 2025
  You need first to identify the country of issuance of the number plate, then contact local police.
Debbie Gamble
13 août 2025
Trying to find the origin of a lorry that struck my vehicle in Wakefield a couple of days ago. We have a picture of the plate but the country is not clear. The reg is WGM 5618R, white background plate, black letters and border with what looks like an blue EU plate to the left but the text in that is indistinct. Any help appreciated
- Eplaque
  13 août 2025
  It's from Poland — specifically the Masovian Voivodeship. “WGM” is a Polish county code for Grodzisk Mazowiecki, and the format with a space and digits plus a trailing letter matches Polish plates.
Susan Wood
11 juillet 2025
Hoping you can tell me the origin of a lorry that struck my car in the uk in April this year, no country flag, registration black letters on white background 9JA2534
- Eplaque
  14 juillet 2025
  It looks like a number plate from the Czech republic, check out the model at the center of the map.
Abs
20 avril 2025
I have registered my british car here in france and now need to get new plates, i have my no d'immatriculation, how do i go about doing the next step?
- Eplaque
  21 avril 2025
  You can order them online here, or email us at contact@eplaque.fr in English if it's more convenient for you.
Radank
11 avril 2025
What country is eui
- Eplaque
  14 avril 2025
  EUI is not a country.

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