Brussels, 08/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - the legal committee of the European Parliament's internal market services adopted the report of Willy Rothley (German Social Democrat)on Tuesday on the new insurance directive by 23 votes for, 0 against and 2 abstentions. This replaces the compensation threshold "per victim" by a "per accident" threshold and increases the maximum amount of compensation per accident to EUR 10 million per accident for personal damages (instead of the 1 million proposed by the Commission and EUR 350,000 in the current legislation, EUR 5 million for material damages (instead of the 500,000 for the Commission and the 100,000 in current legislation. 8 Member States already have unlimited cover in their legislation for personal damages. Cover is expected to rise in Portugal, Spain, Greece and Ireland.
The legal committee got rid of the article obliging insurance companies for car to cover compensation for pedestrians and cyclists, a provision that exists in France, Belgium and Sweden but not in other Member States. MEPs believe that the insurance directive should not amend national law on civic liability.