Brussels, 24/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - The "Comité European des assurances" (CEA) is calling for a legislative "moratorium" the time it takes to digest measures adopted in the context of the action plan on financial services, but also in order to safeguard the environment and consumers' interests. The "tidal wave of European legislation over recent years" creates an "increasingly heavy workload for organisations such as the CEA and industry as a whole", the Committee president, Gérard de la Martinière, said as he presented the CEA annual report.
EU activity "results in complex and sometimes incoherent legislation. The obligation to inform, for example, varies depending on the sales method applied: face to face, by telephone or on-line", the CEA notes in the report. It urges for rationalisation and simplification of the existing legislation and for "a complete cost-profit analysis" before the new text is adopted. This is all the more necessary as, according to the representative of European insurers, there is no real single market for consumers as there are few cross-border operations because of the "different profiles from one country to the next concerning accidents and the need for after-sales services, and the various cultural and linguistic factors".
Assessing the texts presented over the past year, CEA Director General Daniel Schanté notes a "tendency to transfer the risk from the public to private sectors as far as retirement, health insurance and civil liability is concerned". The directive applying the polluter-pays principle to environmental damage is an example of this transfer of civil liability. The CEA is pleased of its victory in this respect. At the end of the day, the directive will not make it compulsory for operators to be insured against environmental risks. Such an obligation would not have been realistic, CEA says, as products covering damage to biodiversity do not yet exist on the insurance market as there is no definition of "risk". The same is true regarding Article 8 of the regulation on requirements concerning the safety of products for animals, which makes it necessary for an operator to provide a financial guarantee, such as an insurance, to cover the risks of destroying faulty feed. Here also, the insurance products do not exist "as there are no data allowing risk assessment and the economic cost of such coverage".
Insurers also call for caution regarding gender equality for access to goods and services. According to the CEA, the proposal of directive presented in November 2003 by the Commission is based on the mistaken hypothesis that neutral calculation compared to the gender criterion of the insurer would be to the advantage of consumers. The price of insurance depends on risk assessment, with motor insurance being mostly to the advantage of women, who have fewer accidents, and retirement insurance more in favour of men, whose life expectancy is shorter. The European Commission hopes to take lifestyle rather than gender into account. Of course, the CEA states, but "to what extent are those insured willing to allow insurers the use of data relating to their private life".
On the other hand, CEA urges for systematic action at European level in the field of climate change. The sector is already studying a systematic cartography highlighting high-risk flood zones and is continuing its reflection on earthquakes.