Brussels, 25/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 24 March, the European Commission adopted a report on the functioning of the Insurance Block Exemption Regulation (BER) [EC Regulation No 358/2003]. The regulation, which is to expire on 31 March 2010, exempts certain agreements between insurance companies from the EC Treaty antitrust rule ban on restrictive business practices. Agreements covered by the BER include the establishment of non-binding standard policy conditions, the exchange of statistical information for the calculation of risks and the creation of insurance pools. The report considers at this stage that two of the four categories of agreements currently exempted by the BER could be renewed, namely information exchange and insurance pools. A public hearing will take place on 2 June 2009 to allow stakeholders to submit their views orally. The Commission will then take a final decision on the future of the BER. For the text of the report see: http: //ec.europa.eu/competition/sectors/financial_ services/insurance_ber_report_ep.pdf. (O.L./transl.jl)