International harmonisation of the technical regulations for motor vehicles

Anyone who goes abroad in their vehicle, or who wishes to buy or sell a vehicle in another country, wants to encounter as little hassle and paperwork as possible. On the other hand, all countries are keen to ensure that the vehicles using their roads are safe, increasingly environment-friendly and have comparable features (such as antidazzle headlights).

Since the late 1950s, there has been an ongoing effort, at international level, to harmonize the technical regulations governing motor vehicles in order to dismantle barriers to the trade in vehicles and accessories for the benefit of the consumer. This effort is based on a UN-ECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) Agreement signed on 20 March 1958 and revised with effect from 16 October 1995. There are currently 48 parties to the Agreement.

The Agreement allows the contracting parties to adopt uniform technical prescriptions for the approval of vehicles, parts and equipment that can be fitted and/or used on vehicles and to reciprocally recognize approvals granted on the basis of these prescriptions. Since 1958, more than one hundred ECE regulations have been adopted on the basis of this Agreement. Most of these ECE regulations were adopted by a large majority of the contracting parties and integrated into their national legislation. The regulations cover most parts and items of equipment of motor vehicles that are relevant for the granting of type approval for a type of vehicle in each of the contracting parties. The regulations are continuously updated to reflect the state of the art and transposed into national legislation by the contracting parties.

The Agreement of 25 June 1998 concerning the Establishing of Global Technical Regulations for Wheeled Vehicles, Equipment and Parts which can be Fitted and/or Used on Wheeled Vehicles governs the same subject matter as the Agreement of 20 March 1958 and operates in parallel with it.

Given the existence of different approval procedures, the Agreement of 25 June 1998 was also negotiated with the aim of enabling all major vehicle manufacturing or importing countries to participate in the global harmonization of vehicle regulations and achieving high levels of safety, environmental protection, energy efficiency and anti-theft performance.

The application of globally harmonized technical regulations for motor vehicles is of great commercial importance to the German automotive and components supply industries, as the largest European community of manufacturers, but it is also important to Germany, as the main transit country in Europe, in terms of the potential impact on the level of road safety and environmental protection.

The signatories

An international approval marking must be attached to each vehicle, part or item of equipment. The marking is made up of a circle containing the letter "E" and the code of the country that granted the approval.

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International approval mark

1 for Germany, 2 for France, 3 for Italy, 4 for the Netherlands, 5 for Sweden, 6 for Belgium, 7 for Hungary, 8 for the Czech Republic, 9 for Spain, 10 for Serbia and Montenegro,

11 for the United Kingdom, 12 for Austria, 13 for Luxembourg, 14 for Switzerland, 15 (-), 16 for Norway, 17 for Finland, 18 for Denmark, 19 for Romania, 20 for Poland,

21 for Portugal, 22 for the Russian Federation, 23 for Greece, 24 for Ireland, 25 for Croatia, 26 for Slovenia, 27 for Slovakia, 28 for Belarus, 29 for Estonia, 30 (-),

31 for Bosnia and Herzegovina, 32 for Latvia, 33 (-), 34 for Bulgaria, 35 (-), 36 for Lithuania, 37 for Turkey, 38 (-), 39 for Azerbaijan, 40 for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,

41 (-), 42 for the European Community (approvals are issued by the individual member states, using their own ECE marks), 43 for Japan, 44 (-), 45 for Australia, 46 for Ukraine, 47 for the Republic of South Africa, 48 for New Zealand, 49 for Cyprus,

50 for Malta und 51 for the Republic of Korea.

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The subsequent numbers will be assigned to new signatories of the agreement according to when they ratify or accede to it; the other signatories will informed about this by the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

National law

In accordance with Council Decision 97/836/EC of 27 November 1997 with a view to accession by the European Community to the Revised 1958 Agreement (OJ L 346, 17.12.1997, p. 78), regulations and amendments to regulations, which are annexed to the Agreement, may be adopted either by the European Community or by Germany.

Regarding the regulations and amendments to regulations adopted by the European Community, which then also apply in Germany, no additional legislative act is required to transpose these regulations or amendments to regulations into national, i.e. German, law (pursuant to Article 300(7) of the EC Treaty of 2 October 1997, in conjunction with Article 1(4) (in the case of new regulations) and Article 1(7) (in the case of existing regulations) of the Revised 1958 Agreement. In these cases, the regulations/amendments are published in a German-language version in the Verkehrsblatt, the official journal of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development.

Regulations and amendments to regulations that are adopted not by the European Community but by Germany are transposed into German law on the basis of ratifying legislation by enacting statutory orders and published in Part II of the Federal Law Gazette.

Contact

Your contact for further information on the content of the ECE regulations:

Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development
Division S 30
11030 Berlin
Germany
Phone: + 49 (0) 30 18-300-5302
email: gudrun.scheuch@bmvbs.bund.de