Brussels, 02/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - At a conference in Brussels on Friday 30 January, the Commissioner for Financial Services, Jonathan Hill, pledged to take his time before launching any new initiatives to complete the single market in the field of insurance.
“I want to look at the cumulative effect of the laws we have passed to make sure we have got the balance right between reducing risk and fostering growth (…). So I can say, although I will be taking forward measures to implement top-level legislation, I do not intend to launch an avalanche of new legislation”, Hill declared.
The Commissioner went on to say that he was “confident” that inter-institutional negotiations on the revision of the 'insurance intermediation' directive between the Council of the EU and the European Parliament would be concluded in the first half of 2015 under the Latvian Presidency of the Council. He called for a “balanced and flexible” approach in order to take into account the diversity of national systems for the provision of insurance services.
Whereas the EP agreed upon its position in February 2014 (see EUROPE 11028), the member states reached an agreement in principle in November of last year (see EUROPE 11092).
Hill referred to a number of “open questions” which the future 'insurance intermediation' directive will not answer. These questions include: - pre-contractual information on home or car insurance policies; - the geographical limitation of certain insurance products in terms of cover, validity and availability; - limited access to a cross-border offer of services. (MB)