Brussels, 12/12/2007 (Agence Europe) - “It is both immoral and illegal for the (British) government to leave so many Equitable Life policyholders without a remedy. I cannot accept the fact that the European Parliament faces the prospect of waiting more than a year between its report on the crisis at Equitable Life and any formal response by the government most concerned by it,” said British Liberal MEP Diana Wallis in a press release. In the United Kingdom, the national ombudsman recently said that he would not be able to publish his report on the collapse of the Equitable Life insurance company before summer 2008.
At the beginning of December, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering wrote to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to ensure that the EP's competence to investigate would not be undermined by a lack of official response from London. According to Wallis, who was the EP rapporteur on the conclusions of the Parliamentary committee set up specifically to investigate this affair (see EUROPE 9407, 9423 and 9449), the attitude of the UK government was “all the more surprising following the prompt rescuing of Northern Rock”, the British bank which suffered badly during the international financial crisis caused by the US mortgage crisis. She added: “I will make sure the petitions committee of the European Parliament takes this matter up once again”.
Over a million people suffered as a result of the collapse of Equitable Life, when the company was unable to pay the £1.5 billion in policyholders' annual bonuses. Most were British, but there were also 15,000 Germans and Irish. The EP, after investigating the European aspect of the collapse, called on the United Kingdom to assume its responsibilities and compensate victims. It also criticised the European Commission which had failed in its role as keeper of the treaties and called for effective measures to be put in place to protect consumers. UK Labour MEPs abstained from voting in the plenary session. (M.B.)