The green sticker will disappear from windshields on April 1, 2024. The decree ratifying the dematerialization of automobile insurance will appear in the coming days, Bercy confirmed this Thursday. The obligation to insure any motor vehicle remains, but instead of the tear-off certificate (green sticker) and the paper certificate (green card) to prove this insurance, a dematerialized file (the FVA, insured vehicle file) will list all covered vehicles .
The police will be able to access this file to check, through the license plate number, whether the vehicle is properly insured. After April 1, when signing a new contract or renewing the existing one, the insured will only receive a “note” detailing the conditions of their insurance, indicates the office of Bruno Le Maire.
A dematerialized system considered more reliable
The insurer will have 72 hours after signing the contract to inform that the vehicle is actually insured in the FVA.
“This archive will be even more reliable than the previous paper-based system,” explains Bruno Le Maire’s office.
The FVA specifies the vehicle registration number, the name of the insurer, the insurance contract number and its validity. This theoretically allows us to have all the insurance guarantees linked to each registered vehicle in real time.
“Historically, the sticker and green card were used as proof of insurance. The FVA is 99% reliable, significantly more than the green card and sticker system. For example, a motorist who cancels during the year can keep their sticker on their windshield. for several months while the file is updated daily,” stated the president of France Assureurs, Françoise Lustman, in Argus de l’Assurance in May 2022.
According to the interministerial delegate for road safety, Florence Guillaume, 206,190 people committed the crime of driving without insurance in 2022.
“Simplifying” the lives of motorists
This dematerialization was announced in mid-July by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. The result of two years of work, including tests of the insured vehicle file created in 2016, the dematerialization of motor insurance should make it possible to “simplify” the lives of motorists, Bercy emphasizes. According to the minister’s cabinet, dematerialization should also make it possible to avoid the emission of 1,200 tons of CO2 per year through the printing of stickers and cards.
If lack of insurance remains a crime punishable by a fine of up to 3,750 euros, failure to present the sticker will expire with dematerialization on April 1. Until then, you still risk a fine of 35 euros if your vehicle is insured but you cannot present a sticker or green card in case of inspection.
And when you travel by car abroad?
A green sticker is not necessary to travel in Europe. 18 countries in the European Union already operate with dematerialized files. On the other hand, for motorists who wish to travel to certain non-EU countries, such as Morocco or Tunisia, a green card will be necessary, states Bruno Le Maire’s office. “Insured people will have to ask insurers to provide them,” underlines a spokesperson.
Source: BFM TV
