Brussels, 07/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Competitiveness Council has postponed the adoption of its "political agreement" on the "automotive insurance" directive to 27 November, due to the differences between the Member States on compensation ceilings. In its adoption, at first reading, of the Rothley report (EUROPE of 23 October, p.11, and of 25 October, p.14), the EP replaced compensation by victims with compensation by accidents, and raised the ceilings for compensation to 10 million EUR for bodily damage and to 5 million for material damage. France and Germany support this approach. Spain, Portugal and Italy would like to stick with the ceilings of 1 million and 500,000 EUR respectively proposed by the Commission. The Member States also disagreed on the length of the transitional periods which could be brought in to arrive at new ceilings for compensation.