Why is there no EU sticker?
The European Union's Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC sets limits on air pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and particulate matter. Like other EU directives, however, it does not specify what countries must do to comply with the limit values. Each country can legislate itself and take measures to comply with EU law.
Many EU countries have environmental zones because they have proven to be effective against air pollution. Of course, an EU sticker regulating entry for all European low emission zones would then be very practical for tourists and logistics companies. But the countries have developed different rules and control mechanisms for their environmental zones; they have each integrated the EU directive independently into their national law.
This means that you need different stickers and registrations if you want to travel to the low emission zones of the different countries. But no problem! The Green-Zones Multishop allows you to buy all the necessary stickers for your vehicle or fleet with just a few clicks!
On our website you can also find out exactly which stickers and registrations are required for which vehicles. In Austria only vans and trucks are affected, in Germany motorbikes are exempt. In Belgium it gets more complicated: There are two registrations, one is valid for the region of Flanders and includes the environmental zone in Antwerp and Ghent. All vehicles must register for this zone. The second Belgian registration is required to enter the low emission zone in Brussels. However, medium and heavy trucks are exempt from registration in Brussels. They simply do not have to be registered. So if you want to register a truck for the Belgian low emission zones, you only need the registration for Flanders (Antwerp/Ghent) and you can still enter all Belgian zones. For a car, van or bus, the Brussels registration is also necessary.
In Denmark there is now also a registration that applies to all Danish environmental zones. But registration is only required for diesel vans, trucks and buses that meet the required Euro standard (trucks and buses at least Euro 5, vans at least Euro 4), but whose Euro standard cannot be identified according to the date of first registration. Confused? No problem, you can read the rules again in detail on our website. Our service team will also be happy to help!
So before you start shopping in our new Multishop, we recommend you take a quick look at our website so that you can keep track of all the rules for the different countries.
By the way, not only the rules of the environmental zones are different. To complete the confusion, the stickers also look completely different. In Austria, the Euronorm is directly recognisable, whereas in France the stickers are assigned like school grades - 5 is the worst. The only thing they all have in common is the bright colours.