When my SO came over from Australia, she got a letter from her previous
insurance company to say that she had been driving for 5 years with no
accidents, and the UK insurance company then gave her the same discount as
if she had been driving here for that length of time. She also swapped her
Aus driving license for a European one with no problems. I have insured a
French registered car in the UK with no problems except they wanted a little
more money because it was LHD. I have also taken a UK registered/insured car
to Luxembourg for a year. What happens if you stay for more than a year I
can't say. 
Since third party insurance from one European country is valid in all the
other European countries, maybe we could find out which country offers the
cheapest policies. Then a visitor could insure their bus in that country and
tour all over Europe in it. I only know this is true for third party, not
collision insurance, at least in the UK you have to pay an extra premium to
extend this to other countries.

Andy E.

A.C.Erskine@lut.ac.uk