In order for the injured parties in a traffic accident to be able to find out the insurance company of the vehicle that caused the accident when this occurs in a country other than the injured party's country of residence and in order for this person to present the claim in his or her own country of residence, the Fourth European Directive has established different mechanisms to provide the information that is required to present the aforementioned claim.

In summary, the system is applied when:

• Injured party: he or she is resident in a country within the European Economic Area.
• Vehicle causing the accident: registered and insured in a country within the European Economic Area that is different to the injured party's country.
• Country where it occurred: Any (in the EEA or attached to the Green Card system), but which differs to the injured party's country of residence.

The aim is to guarantee that the injured party may present a claim for the damages suffered in the accident in his or her own Country of Residence. In order to do this, all the insurance companies are obliged to indicate a representative in each Member State who can attend, respond and settle this type of claim. And in turn, each Member State of the European Economic Area must appoint a so-called "Information Organism" through which the injured party may locate the insurance company details for the foreign vehicle responsible and its representative in the State where the injured party resides.

In the Spain the Information Organism is the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros.

In order to request the information, the following is required:

a) To hold the condition of person involved in the traffic accident (injured party in the accident due to damages to their person or to their goods).

b) To fill in the information request model that is supplied by the Consorcio, and which may also be downloaded from the Consorcio's web site. The following information appears on this model or form:

• Personal details of the applicant
• Registration number of the vehicle causing the damages
• Date of the accident
• Type of damages occurred in the claim (personal and/or material).

c) Attach the documents indicated below:

• Copy of the damage report or accident report by mutual consent.
• If the applicant is acting on behalf of an individual or a corporate body, this representation must be accredited.

d) The request must be addressed to the Production Department and sent by post (Paseo de la Castellana 32, 28046 Madrid), by fax (913395514) or by email (iccsprod@consorseguros.es), accompanied by the required documents.

• The injured parties and their insurance companies.
• The information organisms in the Member States of the E.E.A.
• The compensation organisms in the Member States of the E.E.A.
• The guarantee funds in the Member States of the E.E.A.
• OFESAUTO
• The Courts and Tribunals
• The health centres and medical emergency services that have signed agreements with the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros and the insurance companies to attend injured parties from traffic accidents.

E.E.A.: Germany, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Serbia, Sweden and Switzerland.

Countries attached to the Green Card system: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Fyrom (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Iran, Israel, Morocco, Moldavia, Montenegro, Russia, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine.

a) Country where it occurred: Spain. Injured party: resident in another country in the E.E.A (e.g. Resident in Italy). Causing party: resident in a country in the E.E.A. other than the injured partys country (e.g.: Spanish vehicle).

b) Injured party: resident in Spain. Country where it occurred: another State in the E.E.A. (e.g.: the United Kingdom). Causing party: resident in a country in the E.E.A. (e.g.: German vehicle).

c) Injured party: resident in Spain. Causing party: resident in another country in the E.E.A. (e.g.: French vehicle). Country where it occurred: a country attached to the Green Card System (e.g.: Morocco, Tunisia, Russia).

d) Causing party: Spanish vehicle and policy holder in Spain. Injured party: resident in another country in the E.E.A. (e.g.: resident in France). Country where it occurred: a country attached to the Green Card System (e.g.: Morocco, Tunisia, Russia).

a) Injured party: resident in France. Causing party: resident in France. Country where it occurred: Spain.

In accordance with that established in article 20.2 of the Law on civil liability and insurance for the circulation of motor vehicles, when the traffic accident has been caused by a vehicle that is normally based and is insured in the injured party's State of residence, the Consorcios action as the Information Organism is NOT relevant.

You may address your query to OFESAUTO (Spanish Office of Motor Vehicle Insurers), located at C/ Sagasta, 18, 28004 Madrid (www.ofesauto.es).

b) Injured party: resident in France. Causing party: Spanish vehicle. Country where it occurred: France.

The system of the Fourth Directive is applied when a resident in the European Economic Area is injured in an accident in a country other than that of his or her country of residence..

Therefore, the Consorcios action as the Information Organism is NOT relevant and you may address your query to the French Bureaux.

c) Injured party: resident in Norway. Causing party: Spanish vehicle. Country where it occurred: Spain. Applicant: Norwegian insurance company.

The request must be addressed to the Information Organism of the victims country of residence, in this case Norway (the Organisms details are on the Consorcios web site, link). This organism will send the query by email to the Consorcio, as the Information Organism for the country where the causing vehicle is normally based. And once a reply has been received from the Consorcio, the Norwegian Information Organism will supply the injured party with the requested information.