EEC Sticker

Brenter

On 1 January 1973, Britain joined the European Economic Community. "We can look forward with excitement to the venture on which we are embarking," Edward Heath promised the nation. 

The Prime Minister.

However, one of the (arguably) less exciting consequences was that new British cars had to show compliance with EEC standards for safety and emissions. Compliance was demonstrated by a sticker affixed to the vehicle.

Like this.

The black and white rectangular stickers were paper-based and so have not survived well. Or at all. Nor are there any reproductions available from classic MG parts suppliers. That makes pinning-down the details (should you wish to do so...) quite challenging.

Location: In the case of the MGB, the sticker was located on the 'slam panel' under the bonnet lip. Initially, it seems to have sat on the nearside, as shown below.

EEC sticker on an early 1973 car (photo from Ebay).

But during 1973 the sticker seems to have migrated to offside the bonnet latch. New drillings introduced for the V8 model (which were carried over into 4-cylinder cars for standardization) required a general re-arrangement of stickers and commission plate in this area, as seen below.

EEC sticker on a late 1973 car (photo from Ebay).

Oddly, on the contemporaneous V8, the stickers were placed right over on the offside. Perhaps there was concern they might be damaged during installation of the fan guard?

EEC sticker on a 1973 V8 (photo from Ebay)

The stickers are not mentioned in either Clausager or the Parts List. But Rob Rose of the MG Car Club has researched, and had made, EEC stickers to cover the years '73 to '77. Details are in the article below (including part numbers). He welcomes orders from genuine MGB owners who want to obtain an authentic item.

Article from Safety Fast! December 2021.

Coding: It is clear that the circled 'E11' at the top of each sticker is the EEC country code for Great Britain. Beneath it are codes in the format, '11R-0017' etc. These relate to components fitted to the vehicle and to their manufacturer.

Unravelling what they mean has taken some rather labyrinthine detective work:

→ UK legislation is published on the appropriately named www.legislation.gov.uk.

↗ There, can be found a series of regulations from 1972 onwards called 'The Motor Vehicles (Designation of Approval Marks) Regulations.' The regulations seem to have come out every year and were sometimes amended within the same year by 'Motor Vehicles (Designation of Approval Marks) (No. 2) Regulations' or '(Amendment)' regulations.

↘ From these, it seems that the first part of the code (e.g. 10R or 11R) refers to the corresponding regulation (e.g. reg. 10 or reg. 11) of the snappily-named International Agreement of 1958 concerning the adoption of uniform conditions of approval and reciprocal recognition of approval for motor vehicle equipment and parts.

↜ The second part of the code (e.g. -070 or -0017) refers to the manufacturer of the relevant vehicle part. It seems each company had to have an identification number allocated by a 'competent authority' (presumably the Ministry of Transport in the UK).

↴ Sadly, I haven't been able to track down the text of the 1958 Agreement because I expect it's a good read, but browsing through the UK Regulations reveals several illustrations of codes, with descriptions, from which the subject of the corresponding 1958 regulation can be deduced. (The 1976 Regs have a particularly good list, if you're interested.)

⇆ So:

• 10R is radio interference suppression
• 11R is side door latches and hinges
• 12R is protection of the driver against the steering mechanism in the event of an impact
• 15R is emission of gaseous pollutants by positive-ignition engines
• 18R is protection against unauthorised use.

↸ Annoyingly, I haven't been able to find out which manufacturer each dash code relates to. (I'd be interested if anyone knows.)

↧ One further refinement: it seems that components made in another EEC country, but fitted to a UK car, had to be listed underneath the correct E code for their home country - as can be inferred from the badly torn version below.

EEC sticker from a chrome-bumper 1974 GT, showing a 2nd country code.

While Edward Heath's exciting European venture may have ended for the UK, it continues for MG anoraks.