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Commission consults on motor insurance issues

The European Commission has launched a public online consultation on two issues related to motor insurance – the effectiveness of claims representatives in settling claims, and insurance cover for legal expenses.

Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said: “Europeans must be able to use their cars in other Member States as they would at home – confident that they have adequate insurance coverage and that any claim will be dealt with quickly and efficiently. We want people with direct experience of these two issues to tell us how well the systems we have put in place work in practice. We will listen to your views.”

During the preparation of the Fifth Motor Insurance Directive, the European Parliament raised some questions related to the insurance cover for legal expenses. In particular, these questions concerned the availability of this insurance on a voluntary basis, and the impact, in terms of the cost of premiums, of including insurance cover for the victim's legal expenses in the compulsory third-party liability motor insurance to be taken out by the party at fault. The Commission agreed to examine these questions and they are also included in the consultation.

The consultation is targeted at EU citizens and all other interested parties, such as lawyers and insurers. To make it as quick and easy as possible to respond, the Commission is using its Interactive Policy Making (IPM) tool, which aims to improve governance by creating web-based questionnaires for collecting and analysing reactions. The consultation is open until 5 June 2006.

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