Basic information about the registration certificate and the requirements of the EU Directive

The registration certificate consists of two parts. Part I (technical part) contains the vehicle’s technical data and information about the owner and holder. Part II (notification part) is intended for notification of changes to the registry. Both parts are printed on A4 forms, the pre-printing of which are the same. The parts of the registration certificates differ from one another in that the document name and part number printed on the upper part of the form are different.

The registration certificate is based on EU Directive (1999/37/EU) on the registration documents for vehicles. The main intention of the Directive is to harmonise the appearance and content of EU Member States’ vehicle registration documents. This will facilitate the understanding of the documents in different Member States and promote the freedom of movement of vehicles registered in another Member State.

The Directive on the registration documents for vehicles requires that the paper used for the registration certificate shall be protected against counterfeiting by various safety factors. Traficom has selected as a watermark and graphics as security factors. The Agency’s logo was used as the model for the watermark. The graphic on the left-hand side of the forms (the road element) repeats the word Traficom.

The Directive sets certain requirements for the content of the certificate. Both parts must have

• the name of the Member State that issued the certificate (Finland) and its international identifier (FIN)
• the name of the competent authority of (Finnish Transport and Communications Agency))
• the word "registration certificate", as well as the part name (Part I or Part II) in all EU languages
• the words “European Union” in the language or languages of the Member State; in the case of Finland, in both domestic languages
• the document number (printed in the lower right corner of the document).

The most important information from the Transport Register is printed on the certificate. The Directive specifies the mandatory data which are preceded by harmonized Community codes. The mandatory information in the technical part, i.e. Part I, includes the type and variant/version, if available (D.2), trade name (D.3) and type-approval number, if available (K). The above information must also be entered in the notification section i.e. Part II, in addition to which the commissioning date (B) and category of vehicle (J) must also be shown.