Brussels, 18/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to refer Belgium, France, Greece, Italy and Portugal to the Court of Justice for failing to notify measures taken for transposing the directive on insurance groups (98/78/EC) into national law. The directive concerns the complementary surveillance of insurance companies belonging to an insurance group and defines a certain number of common basic rules that determine the requirements of own funds necessary for enterprises to be able to face up to risks. The Commission stresses the importance of transposing the text within the time set, since the directive applies to the surveillance of accounts for the financial period beginning 1 January 2001.
The Commission also sent a reasoned opinion to Finland, which excluded compulsory insurance against accidents at work from the scope of the legislation transposing the third non-life insurance directive (92/49/EEC), in force in Finland since April 1995. The European Executive considers that insurance against accidents at work must be included in the scope of the directive, in so far as the insurance companies propose it at their own risk.