Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-19-Speech-5-087"
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"en.20000519.5.5-087"2
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". – Mr President, first of all I would like to thank the rapporteur, Mr Langen, and all those who have contributed to this draft resolution on the Commission's report on the operation of the insurance block exemption regulation. The Commission welcomes the draft resolution, not only for its overall support concerning the Commission's application of the regulation, but also for the specific comments which it contains on how the regulation can be improved.
The conclusion of the draft resolution that the regulation has been successful overall, but that a moderate enhancement is needed, is one that the Commission entirely shares. The draft resolution is a most helpful contribution to this end and the Commission will keep Parliament fully informed and consulted on the process of revising the regulation.
A brief word of background about the regulation in question is perhaps in order. Before 1992, the competition directorate-general of the Commission was submerged by literally hundreds of notifications of agreements in the insurance field, many of which raised similar issues and were eligible for an exemption under Article 81(3) of the Treaty. Rather than adopting hundreds of individual exemption decisions, the Commission adopted in 1992 a block exemption regulation granting exemption, with conditions, to agreements between insurance undertakings in four categories: agreements concerning the joint calculation of risk premiums, those concerning standard policy conditions, co-insurance and reinsurance, pooling arrangements and agreements adopting standards for safety equipment.
The Council Regulation of 1991 enabling the Commission to adopt an insurance block exemption regulation also authorised the inclusion of two further areas which the Commission, however, decided not to include in its regulation for lack of experience in those areas, namely agreements on claims settlement and agreements on registers of aggravated risk.
Following the adoption of the Block Exemption Regulation in 1992, most of the notifications on the Commission's table were withdrawn, but some were not, as the notifying parties considered that the regulation did not provide total clarity as to whether their agreements were eligible for exemption. Most of these notifications concerned insurance pools.
The current regulation expires on 31 March 2003 and a new regulation will be necessary. The future regulation should build on these strengths and remedy any weaknesses in the existing one. The report produced by the Commission on 12 May 1999, which it was pursuant to Article 8 of the Council enabling regulation, was the first step in the process leading to the adoption of a new regulation. It summarises in detail the experience of the Commission in applying the regulation and the various problems it has identified. It does not, however, contain precise proposals for the future regulation.
These will only be decided upon after the end of the consultation process. Considerable account will be taken of Parliament's resolution in this process. Other interested parties, including professional insurance bodies and consumer organisations, will also be consulted.
The next step in the consultation will be a hearing organised by the Commission on 28 June of this year for an exchange of views between all those who have submitted comments on the report on the regulation. This hearing responds in part to the call in the draft resolution for an informative debate on the regulation.
It is clear that the area in which most improvement to the regulation is needed is that of pools. Significant change will be necessary here, but key questions exist in all the other areas. The comments and suggestions contained in the draft resolution, for which I thank Parliament, are all relevant and interesting in this context, although each of them will have to be analysed individually and on its merits.
May I just respond at this stage to two issues of a similar nature raised by both Mr Langen and Mr Meijer, and that is the question whether the Commission accepts the draft opinion's recommendation that agreements on claims settlement should be included in the future block exemption regulation. The Commission has an open mind at this stage as to whether agreements on claim settlement and agreements on registers of aggravated risks should be covered by the future regulation. It takes good note of the fact that the draft opinion recommends the inclusion of agreements and on claims settlement."@en1
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