Green Card Bureau
As per the definition determined by Act LXII of 2009 on Insurance Against Civil Liability in Respect of the Use of Motor Vehicles, the National Bureau is an organisation of Hungarian motor insurers providing compulsory motor liability insurance cover. This organisation is taking care of tasks related to co-ordination, the claims handling and settlements in the framework of the international Green Card System.
Compulsory motor liability insurance was established in Europe between the First and Second World Wars in order to ensure the necessary indemnity for the traffic victims.
In June 1952 the resolution of the Inland Transport Committee established the Green Card System with the participation of eight countries with effect from 1st January 1953. The eight countries were: Austria, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland and the Federal Republic of Germany. Within a half-year, another four countries (Denmark, Norway, Finland, Ireland) joined this system. In the next few years, most European countries followed them. Hungary has been participating in the Green Card system since 1961.
With a permanent location in London (and co-operating with the Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations), the Council of Bureaux (CoB) is the main governing and representative body of the Green Card System. (established in November 1951.)
The Green Card Agreement is based on two principles:
Due to the increase of the international motor vehicle traffic the idea to facilitate the operation of the system changed in spite of the satisfactory functioning of the Green Card system. The members of the Green Card system raised the idea of concluding supplementary agreements which are aimed at the elimination of producing and controlling the Green Card as a documentary evidence of the insurance cover.
During the parallel operation of the Uniform Agreement and its further development, the Multilateral Guarantee Agreement the idea of unification of the two agreements was first raised in 1999. The differences in the texts and as a consequence of this the different interpretations underlined the necessity of the unification.
According to Directive 2009/103/EC (Motor Insurance Directive), every vehicle normally based in the territory of a third country must, before entering the territory of Hungary, be provided either with a valid Green Card or with a certificate of frontier insurance establishing that the vehicle is insured in accordance with the Directive.