WRITTEN QUESTION E-1080/01

by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(9 April 2001)

Subject: Protracted settlement procedures following (road) accidents in Switzerland

On Friday, 16 February the Swedish Presidency discussed with the President of Switzerland the right to rapid, low-cost compensation for European victims of road accidents in Switzerland. This initiative is part of the search for a solution to the long drawn out damage claims between EU victims and Swiss insurance companies, because the fourth directive on motor vehicle insurance is not applicable here.

Loop-holes in Swiss legislation enable insurance companies to withhold for a very long time the payment of damages resulting from civil liability. This source of legal uncertainty affects EU citizens who are victims of (road) accidents in Switzerland. They become caught up in a legalistic procedural wrangle with no prospect of compensation within a reasonable period of time. One of the victims is a citizen of the Belgian Federation who has been waiting for a number of years for speedy, equitable and fair compensation.

This case has already prompted questions to the Commission, the Council and the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs. In reply to a previous question, the Council said that EU Institutions had acknowledged the problem of protracted settlement procedures following road accidents in third countries and that they were prepared to tackle the problem with the proposal for the third directive on motor vehicle insurance. However, the fourth directive affords no solution to the settlement procedures which are still under way.

1. What results and/or agreements have come from discussions with the Swiss President?

2. Does the Council think that a rapid, fair and reasonable solution will be found, within the foreseeable future, for the victims involved in protracted settlement procedures following road accidents in Switzerland? If not, what further action will the Council take in order to find a rapid, fair and reasonable solution within the foreseeable future?

Reply

(27 September 2001)

The fourth motor insurance Directive(1) which has been referred to in the Written Question and in the Council's answers to previous questions relating to the settlement procedures following road accidents, adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in 2000, aims at shortening and simplifying the settlement procedures that follow after road accidents having a transnational dimension to the extent provided for in the Directive.

The fourth motor insurance Directive applies, to some extent, to settlement procedures that follow after accidents in Switzerland. This is because the Directive also applies to injured parties resident in a Community Member State who are entitled to compensation in respect of loss or injury resulting from accidents occurring in third countries whose national insurers' bureaux, as defined in Article 1(3) of Directive 72/166/EEC, have joined the Green Card system whenever such accidents are caused by the use of vehicles insured and normally based in a Member State.

However, accidents in Switzerland which occur for instance between a vehicle insured in Switzerland and a vehicle insured in a Community Member State do not fall within the scope of the Directive. An improvement of settlement procedures in such cases would have to be negotiated between the Community and Switzerland.

Since this matter belongs to the Community competence, the initiative for such negotiations has to come from the Commission as a recommendation provided for in Article 300 of the Treaty. No such recommendation has been made to the Council.

The contents of the discussions, which according to the Honourable Member have taken place between the Presidency and the President of Switzerland on 16 February, have not been brought to the attention of the Council.

(1) Directive 2000/26/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 May 2000 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles and amending Council Directives 73/239/EEC and 88/357/EEC (Fourth motor insurance Directive).