Luxembourg, 04/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Dutch Presidency's hope of a political agreement on the Commission's proposal of directive on equal treatment between men and women when it comes to access to the provision of public services and goods seemed, on Monday in Luxembourg, to be growing more remote by the hour. The president of the Employment and Social Policy Council, Aart Jan De Geus, had a brush with the Slovak and German delegations, who were not satisfied with the compromise proposed by the Dutch Presidency. Points over which they stumbled were questions relating to actuarial evaluation, extension of the application of the proposal to private contracts (between individuals) and respect for private life in certain situations. In a further effort, the Presidency proposed a new compromise taking requests from the different sides into account. However, at the time of going to press, Germany, for which balance between the principles of equal treatment between men and women and respect of privacy is essential (as set out in our Constitution, a spokesperson recalled), continues to consider that the Presidency's text was not satisfactory on this point. The proposal of directive, which requires unanimity in Council, therefore seemed blocked. The Presidency, which did not despair of persuading Germany to relax its stance, decided to pursue work until, it hopes, a political agreement is reached.
From the outset of work, Slovakia had requested that the insurance sector should be excluded from the directive as far as the calculation of tariffs is concerned. There was also a coup de théâtre, however, on the part of Germany, which, after recent proposals by its Justice Minister, called for all private contracts to be excluded from the directive, and for a balance between equal treatment between men and women and respect of privacy to be ensured, an official source states. The proposal of directive stipulates that, if, for example, one seeks to sell an object and that the potential buyers are one women and one man, then the seller should not show any discrimination according to the gender of the buyer and should justify his/her reasons for having sold the object to one or the other, the same source recalled. On the other hand, the United Kingdom, which had shown slight reticence about the proposal of directive, rallied to the first Presidency compromise.
If the text proposed gains the political agreement of the 25, then the Commission will follow the developments in the Member States and will report on this in a five-year report. A working group formed of representatives of Member States, organisations for promoting gender equality and insurance companies will give its support to the Commission. Member States will implement the legislative, regulatory and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the directive within two years after it takes effect.
The rule that serves as a basis for the first Dutch Presidency compromise was the "uni-sex principle" whereby equal premiums and compensation are to be applied irrespective of gender. Member States may derogate from this principle if they can justify that gender is a determining factor in the evaluation of risks proper to insurance products, the Presidency explains. As a consequence, it would be possible for some insurance firms to make a gender-related distinction, in cases such as life insurance (as, statistically, women live longer than men, women therefore pay higher premiums, the Presidency recalls).
We recall that Article 4 of the proposal of directive presented by former Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou had been much disparaged by the European insurance lobby, which had at the time warned against the unexpected consequences that the proposal could have on consumers. The insurers had also pointed out that, if the proposal were passed, the directive would prevent insurers from taking the gender of their clients into account when concluding health or car insurance contracts, just as it would prevent banks from taking gender into consideration when determining conditions for a loan. The European Parliament had approved this proposal of directive (see EUROPE of 1 April 2004, p.13). Article 4 specifies that the principle of equal treatment applies to the use of actuarial factors differentiated according to gender for calculating risk, premiums and benefits in the insurance sector and in that of the insurance-related industries. In this case, the directive only applies to the new transactions that are undertaken after the transposition date, the Commission explained as Anna Diamantopoulou presented the proposal (see EUROPE of 5 and 6 November 2003). Furthermore, in order to avoid excessively abrupt adjustments to the insurance market, the article allows Member States to opt for a long transposition period for provisions relating to actuarial factors. If Member States use this possibility, they will keep the Commission informed of it and will encourage transparency in the market by compiling, publishing and updating detailed tables on the life expectancy of men and women.