Non-elected Brussels meddlers interfering again or a good idea?

I heard on the early morning news this morning that those meddling Eurocrats in Strasbourg and Brussels will be voting on a standardised style of number plate for the EU member states soon. Good idea or unnecessary meddling in internal laws of member countries? I can see good reasons for doing it but think it is not something our unelected nannies should be wasting their time on.

This item is culled from the Daily Express (I hasten to add not a paper that I normally read) as they were the only newspaper that came up with anything about it at 07:30 this morning!

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/469587/...-EU-design

UK Treasury will suffer a large drop in income should this happen!

(10-04-2014 07:27am)XFullFatTim Wrote:  I heard on the early morning news this morning that those meddling Eurocrats in Strasbourg and Brussels will be voting on a standardised style of number plate for the EU member states soon. Good idea or unnecessary meddling in internal laws of member countries? I can see good reasons for doing it but think it is not something our unelected nannies should be wasting their time on.

This item is culled from the Daily Express (I hasten to add not a paper that I normally read) as they were the only newspaper that came up with anything about it at 07:30 this morning!

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/469587/...-EU-design

UK Treasury will suffer a large drop in income should this happen!

Also reported in the Daily Mail this morning (I hasten to add a paper that I only read as it's free on the I-pad for 6 months)

Good idea in my opinion. I guess if we don't like the idea, then lobby our MEPs who will get to vote on this.
https://www.writetothem.com

I wonder if it ever makes it into the statute books what will happen to existing plates? There are some very expensive licence plates out there in the UK that might be worth zilch if we all have to re-register to comply............

(10-04-2014 09:57am)XFullFatTim Wrote:  I wonder if it ever makes it into the statute books what will happen to existing plates? There are some very expensive licence plates out there in the UK that might be worth zilch if we all have to re-register to comply............

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In Belgium former personalized plates are changed towards the new layout free of charge as long as the owner remains the same, you are not allowed to sell your registration to a third party.

Anyhow the ORIGINAL PLATE , displayed at the rear of the car, always remains property of the State and any fee concerned has to be paid to the State. All registration plates are owner related and not car related
like in many other EU countries. You can carry on the same registration to any new vehicle.

Depending on car body layout and space available there is a choice of 4 different sizes or shapes.
to say standard, small, rectangular or square.

Personally I see no benefit in standardising these.
Whats the point in the ANPR picking up a numberplate which 'looks' like a UK plate but returns no result because it's actually French or Belgian etc...

Plus I've got a few private plates and would be pretty damned annoyed if they instantly became 'worthless'!

(10-04-2014 10:50am)RacingSnake Wrote:  Personally I see no benefit in standardising these.
Whats the point in the ANPR picking up a numberplate which 'looks' like a UK plate but returns no result because it's actually French or Belgian etc...

Plus I've got a few private plates and would be pretty damned annoyed if they instantly became 'worthless'!

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As far as I understand, standarized means size. I do not know what U.K. is deciding, but anyhow up to now every country on the continent can opt for colour of background and colour of characters.

The colours in Belgium, dark red on white, I find horrible, but unfortunately at the moment I have no choice.

As we use to say, how do you reconize a blind pedestrian : red rings on a white walking cane
blind car driver : red characters on a white plate

I took it as standardising the style/formatting rather than the shape/colours... if all it is, is a change of character height and colours, then I don't care
(Though I would still see an issue with plate fraud and ANPR's)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...itics.html