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In Belgium every car is required to carry at least one fire extinguisher. In Germany you need to have an environment sticker to drive into a city. In France you might need alcohol testers. Coming from mainland Europe to the UK you are required to apply lamp stickers. You need to have fluo vests in some countries. Sometime only the driver, some times all passengers. Today I learned that in Spain you are required to carry spare glasses. If you are wearing sun glasses, while driving you also need to have spare sun glasses. I could ofcourse ask a question on each country which I intend to visit, but can I make my car fully EU compliant. Meaning I have everything required in if it is required in at least one EU member state.

What inventory should I have in my car? What tests, governmental stickers, or other regulation should I adhere too?

Community
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    Parodic version: http://blip.tv/ledouaisis/g-5996544 (in french but the picture is clear enough to understand) – travelot Mar 01 '13 at 13:28
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    @travelot :) How could I forget, a GRD sticker should be on my EU compliant car –  Mar 01 '13 at 13:47
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    The alcohol tester law in France had been postponed until today, 1st of March. The final decision is: you need them, but nothing happens if you don't (this is a law from the previous government that passed to help a friend of the president, the current government neutralized it...) – Quentin Pradet Mar 01 '13 at 15:54
  • @QuentinPradet I consider the breathalyzer to be part of a EU compliant car. There are so many maybe, don't ifs, etc. –  Mar 01 '13 at 16:26
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    There are currently 27 countries in the EU. 27 different regulations. I think you are asking a overly broad question here. How likely is it that you will be actually traveling to ALL 27 countries? – uncovery Mar 02 '13 at 02:15
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    Being as active on travel.se as I am, I would say that that it is quite likely. –  Mar 02 '13 at 05:58
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    I've not read up on the rules and regs for all countries, but it's almost certain you're going to find some contradictory laws, making it impossible to be legal in all of them at the same time. E.g. the headlight stickers for the UK will likely make your car illegal somewhere else that prohibits any stickers or other obstructions on the lights. – jwenting Mar 04 '13 at 07:17
  • btw. you are required to have spare glasses if and only if your driver's license states, that you're required to wear glasses to drive. Which isn't that usual, even for people who normally use glasses. – vartec Mar 04 '13 at 10:14
  • Wouldn't this be quickly outdated? Rules change (as already can be seen in the discussion about country stickers at one of the answers) and therefore each change would need an update of the answer, making this a hard to manage resource. – Saaru Lindestøkke Mar 05 '13 at 15:03
  • I'd say give up on it, as what's required in one country may be illegal in another (think the headlight stickers for the UK).
    Also, what's required in one country at specific times may be illegal in another at another time (think winter tyres in Germany during winter months, which are illegal in the Netherlands in summer).
    Best you can do is figure out what's legal in all countries and required in at least one, and keep all of that in your car, then at home keep a stock of other things you can quickly add as needed for a specific trip.     – jwenting Mar 04 '13 at 07:23

4 Answers4

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The British AA provides a list of recommended items for selected European countries.

Interestingly, they claim that fire extinguishers are only required for cars registered in Belgium.

Grzenio
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    Interesting, but unfortunately the list is incomplete (as is similar lists from other AA-like organizations I consulted). The country stickers are also not required anymore, since every license plate has the blue EU flag with country indication –  Mar 01 '13 at 13:00
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    @Andrea cars with older plates and non-EU cars still need the stickers, though. – uncovery Mar 01 '13 at 13:08
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    @Andra that is not correct. For example, many cars still produced in the UK don't have the blue EU flag on the plate: https://www.gov.uk/displaying-number-plates/flags-symbols-and-identifiers – Andrew Ferrier Mar 04 '13 at 07:33
  • @uncovery: many non-EU license plates use same scheme, difference is that instead of EU flag they have national flag. – vartec Mar 04 '13 at 10:12
  • btw. Spain requires not one, but two warning triangles – vartec Mar 04 '13 at 10:16
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    @vartec AFAIK only for cars registered in Spain – Dirty-flow Mar 11 '13 at 12:02
  • @Dirty-flow: it's about they rules about using warning triangles on highway, you have to put one waaaaay back, and another one close to the car. – vartec Mar 11 '13 at 12:31
  • (+1) Here is a similar list and some country-by-country information from the Dutch automobile club. I can't vouch for its correctness but it does also indicate that fire extinguisher are not mandatory in Belgium for cars registered in the Netherlands (it is in Poland, though) and that the second warning triangle requirement in Spain is only for local cars. – Relaxed Jun 30 '14 at 23:32
  • @Relaxed my parents used to drive to Spain regularly, were told by those same guys that they'd best comply with Spanish regulations and have 2, as well as safety vests for everyone, etc. Nothing about Belgian fire extinguishers though. – jwenting Jul 01 '14 at 08:00
  • @jwenting There is this “De ANWB raadt aan om deze ook mee te nemen in je Nederlandse auto om zo eventuele discussie met de lokale politie te voorkomen.” So basically it's not mandatory but the police themselves might not know it so it's easier to have a second one anyway… Maybe that's why they told your parents to buy a second warning triangle? – Relaxed Jul 01 '14 at 08:10
  • @Relaxed probably. Police in many countries aren't always familiar with details of the law, especially corner cases like which local regulations are waived for foreigners and especially in areas where they'd not see many foreign cars. – jwenting Jul 01 '14 at 08:12
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Some of requirements not typically mentioned:

  • winter tires — under some conditions required in Austria, Sweden, Finland and Germany.
  • warning triangles — Spain and Switzerland require not one, but two of them.
  • fire extinguisher — Poland not only requires you to have it, but to have it in "readily accessible", which means you cannot have it in the trunk. Typically they are put under driver's seat.
  • replacement light bulbs — some countries (France, Poland, Czech Rep., Croatia) require you to have replacement bulbs for any of the lights that is legally required.
  • First-aid kit; some countries (at least in Austria). It can be bought in any pharmacy.
jespestana
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vartec
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  • France does not require replacement light bulbs (even if many French people will tell you it does). You can be fined if a light is broken and you can't replace it on the spot but as long as none of them are broken, the fact that you wouldn't be able to fix them is not in itself an offense. It's a pretty arcane distinction but it means the police can't just fine you because there are no replacement light bulbs in your car. – Relaxed Jun 30 '14 at 23:17
  • Netherlands require replacement bulbs, something even many Dutch people don't realise. But same as in France, I've never heard of anyone being fined for not having them unless they were stopped for a broken light and couldn't replace it (of course with the way most cars are now built, replacing a light without a workshop is a futile effort whether you have spares or not). – jwenting Jul 01 '14 at 08:02
  • My sincere thanks to @jespestana for making me discover that I'm going around with my motorbike...not compliant with laws :-O – motoDrizzt May 29 '17 at 07:54
  • Environmental zone sticker, for e.g. Germany and Denmark (and yes, you need different sticker for different countries). This applies if you enter an environmental zone (typically a city). Supposedly Copenhagen fines you 2500€ and up if you dont have the right one. – lalala Jul 10 '20 at 09:58
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    @lalala Denmark's rules for environmental zones only apply to vans, lorries and busses and they no longer require stickers, the vehicle just needs to be compliant with the emissions requirements. – Rasmus Faber Jul 10 '20 at 13:03
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Portugal

  • You need at least 1 fluo vest.
  • Warning triangle
  • A spare tire is not required, but if you have one it must be in good shape

I am not sure these are mandatory for cars with a foreigner license plate though.

You will need to buy or rent an electronic payment device to be able to use some highways with electronic tolls only.

nsn
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    If I am not wrong the principle is that if you drive in a country, you adhering to local regulations is mandatory. The chances of you being caught driving in Belgium without a fire extinguisher are slim, but foreigner did get tickets for not having it on board. –  Mar 01 '13 at 12:48
  • and carrying just that you'd be illegal in Spain where you need 1 fluo vest per occupant, 2 warning triangles, a medical kit (required in most countries, recommended in all), and maybe more. In other countries a set of spare lamps and fuses is I think required, Germany requires winter tyres in winter which are illegal in some countries at least in certain months, etc. etc. – jwenting Mar 04 '13 at 07:20
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The EU put out an app with a list of traffic rules in different countries and, under the “Other Specific Rules”, a list of safety equipment that might be required (including safety vests, warning triangles, fire extinguishers, and winter tires requirements). Unfortunately, it's short on the specifics, does not seem more comprehensive than other similar lists (e.g. from automobile clubs) and comes with a disclaimer.

One thing missing in all the answers and lists so far is the fact that devices warning the driver of speed controls ahead are forbidden in a number of countries (sorry link is in Dutch). The details vary from country to country and I don't know if you should realistically worry about it but I guess that to make your car fully compliant you should leave any personal navigation device with such functionality at home (TomTom has a clever work-around: They warn you of broader “danger zone” instead of telling you exactly where the automated speed control is, which is apparently legal, at least in France).

The environmental sticker system in Germany is also being constantly expanded so that it's now forbidden to ride in many city centers without one. You would need one to make your car fully compliant with German rules (if you wand to go to those cities, obviously).

Finally, many countries require a specific sticker to ride on the motorways but I don't know if that's really relevant to your question. Getting a year pass for all European motorways would be quite expensive. It makes more sense to buy a short-term sticker whenever you actually need to use a country's motorways. You would usually see warning signs and be able to buy one in the border area.

Relaxed
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