Green Card Insurance Europe 2026: 8 Countries Still Ask for It

If your car is registered in the EU, the EEA, Switzerland, the UK, Andorra, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Montenegro, you do not need a Green Card to drive anywhere else in that group: the number plate is the proof of insurance. You still need one, or a frontier policy bought at the border, to enter Albania, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Morocco, North Macedonia, Tunisia, Türkiye or Ukraine.

For green card insurance, Europe splits along a list kept by the Council of Bureaux (CoB), the Brussels body that runs the Green Card system, published on its “Green Card system” page (archived copy of 2 September 2026). The “no checks at internal borders” rule comes from the EU Motor Insurance Directive, 2009/103/EC.

The two groups of countries

The CoB counts 47 countries represented by 43 Green Card bureaux. Not all of them treat the card the same way.

Group 1: no Green Card needed (Multilateral Agreement, 36 countries). In the CoB’s words, “36 of the 47 countries participating in the Green Card system apply the Multilateral Agreement”, and for motorists from those countries “the Green Card is no longer a required document when crossing the borders”. The 36 are:

• the 27 EU member states
• Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (the rest of the European Economic Area)
• Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom

Group 2: Green Card still checked (members outside the agreement). These countries are in the system, so a card from your insurer is accepted, but your plate alone does not prove cover:

Suspended members: the card does not help. Russia and Belarus were suspended on 30 June 2023. The CoB notice says that since 1 June 2023 “cross border traffic between Russia and Belarus and the EEA countries, Switzerland and the UK is subject to frontier insurance”. Iran was suspended from 1 January 2024, and “no Green Cards issued in Iran, or covering for the territory of Iran will be acceptable”.

Not in the system at all. Georgia, Armenia, Algeria, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya and Syria are listed by the CoB only as eligible for future membership. Israel, Iraq, the United States and Canada do not appear on the member list. In these countries a European policy and its Green Card are not a recognised proof of cover, so ask your insurer whether the policy extends there at all, or buy local insurance.

One footnote from the CoB itself: a few countries have made the Green Card their national proof of insurance under their own law. That obligation applies to cars registered there, not to visitors crossing a border.

Why the EU does not check your insurance at the border

Two articles of Directive 2009/103/EC do the work:

• Article 4: “Member States shall refrain from making checks on insurance against civil liability in respect of vehicles normally based in the territory of another Member State.” Police may still run non-systematic checks, as long as they are not discriminatory and not aimed only at insurance.
• Article 14: every compulsory motor policy must cover “on the basis of a single premium and during the whole term of the contract, the entire territory of the Community”, at the level of cover the visited country requires or your home country’s level if that is higher.

That is the legal minimum, third-party liability only. Cover for fire, theft or damage to your own car abroad is a matter of policy wording, so read the territorial limits section before you leave.

UK drivers: what GOV.UK says

GOV.UK’s vehicle insurance guidance (checked 1 October 2026) states that you “do not need to carry a green card when you drive in the EU (including Ireland), Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, and Switzerland. You still need valid vehicle insurance.”

It also says:

• You “may need to carry a green card” in Albania, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Turkey and Ukraine, and outside Europe in Morocco and Tunisia. GOV.UK also names Israel; Israel has no bureau in the CoB member list, so check with your insurer whether your policy covers it.
• Your insurer will either post a card (“allow up to 6 weeks”) or let you download and print one.
• You need separate cards if you tow a trailer or caravan (one for each), have two policies covering the trip, or drive on a multi-car or fleet policy.
• You must show the card if you are involved in an accident, and may have to show it at a border or a police stop.

Taking your own car also means carrying the V5C log book and your insurance certificate. The cross-border checklist lists the other documents country by country.

US and Canadian drivers

Renting in Europe. Article 3 of the directive requires every vehicle normally based in an EU country to carry third-party liability insurance. A hire car registered in the EU therefore comes with that legal minimum from the car’s own insurer. The law does not make it include cover for damage to the hire car or for theft. That depends on the rental contract and any options you buy at the desk. If you plan to drive the hire car into Albania, North Macedonia, Türkiye or another Group 2 country, the rental company must allow the crossing and supply the car’s Green Card, because only the car’s insurer can issue it. For the licence side, see the international driving permit guide.

Shipping your own car over. The United States and Canada are outside the Green Card system, and the CoB states that a Green Card is “always issued under the authority of a Green Card Bureau”. Article 8 of the directive says a vehicle based in a non-member country must, before entering the EU, carry “either a valid green card or a certificate of frontier insurance”. A US or Canadian policy cannot supply either, so arrange cover with an insurer in a member country before the car is unloaded.

The card itself

Since 1 January 2025 every country in the system must accept the card as a PDF as well as on paper, according to the CoB. Whether your insurer sends a PDF depends on the national bureau of the country where the policy is issued. Before you go, check three things on the card: the validity dates, the vehicle registration, and that the code of each country on your route is not struck out.

Overseas motor insurance: what the card does not prove

A Green Card, or the plate that replaces it, proves only the third-party liability minimum of the country you are in. Everything else is set by your own policy’s foreign-use clause, and that is where trips go wrong. Comprehensive cover abroad is often limited to a set number of days per trip or per year, and some policies drop to third-party only once that count is passed. Breakdown recovery is usually a separate product, and medical costs for you and your passengers sit with travel insurance, not the motor policy.

Before you book the ferry, ask the insurer three things in writing: how many days of full cover you have abroad, whether every country on the route is included, and whether a trailer or caravan needs its own card. Our guide to travel insurance for driving in Europe sets the motor, medical and breakdown pieces side by side.

Sources

• Council of Bureaux, “Green Card system” (member list, Multilateral Agreement, geographical scope), archived 2 September 2026: https://web.archive.org/web/20260902082531/https://www.cobx.org/article/4130/green-card-system-final%5C; live site: https://www.cobx.org/
• Council of Bureaux, “Changes in cross-border road traffic to/from Russia and Belarus”, July 2023: https://www.cobx.org/article/10928/changes-cross-border-road-traffic-tofrom-russia-and-belarus
• Council of Bureaux, “Changes in cross-border road traffic to/from Iran”, 28 December 2023: https://www.cobx.org/article/10959/changes-cross-border-road-traffic-tofrom-iran
• Council of Bureaux, “Green Cards in electronic format must be accepted in 3 months”, 1 October 2024: https://www.cobx.org/article/11012/green-cards-electronic-format-must-be-accepted-3-months
• Directive 2009/103/EC (Articles 3, 4, 8 and 14), Official Journal L 263, 7 October 2009: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2009/103/oj
• GOV.UK, “Vehicle insurance: driving abroad”, checked 1 October 2026: https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-insurance/driving-abroad