The European Parliament Committee on the Internal Market has endorsed the European Commission's proposal to strengthen the compensation for road accident victims in a cross-border context.
This revision of the Motor Vehicle Insurance Directive provides in particular that in the event of the insolvency of the insurer of the vehicle involved in an accident, victims will be quickly and fully compensated by a compensation fund funded by national insurers. In cross-border situations, the victim will be compensated directly by the national fund of the State where the accident occurred before it is reimbursed by the State compensation fund of the insolvent insurer (see EUROPE 12026).
MEPs, who support this idea, want to ensure that any legitimate compensation is paid no later than six months after the accident.
The parliamentary committee has not modified the minimum amounts of compensation suggested by the Commission, namely: - for personal injury: 6.07 million euros per accident, irrespective of the number of victims, or 1.22 million euros per victim; - for property damage: 1.22 million euros. These amounts should be reviewed every five years.
On the other hand, MEPs exclude e-bikes, segways and electric scooters from the scope of the future directive, since these machines are "smaller and therefore less likely to cause significant damage to persons or property". According to them, it is up to the Member States to decide whether they want to protect the victims of accidents caused by these machines.
Vehicles used exclusively for motor sport are also excluded from the directive.
"We have found a good balance between greater protection for road accident victims and preventing absurd over-regulation", said Dita Charanzová (ALDE, Czech Republic), European Parliament rapporteur. Adding that subjecting everything that runs on an engine to car insurance “would increase the cost of insurance policies for their holders and would slow down the market" for machines such as e-bikes.
The position of the parliamentary committee will be submitted to the European Parliament for approval at the February plenary session. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)