WRITTEN QUESTION E-2772/03 by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Commission. Levels of professional indemnity cover for small insurance firms.
Date: 2003-09-16
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: guarantee, insurance company, insurance law, registration of a company, reinsurance, third-party insurance

C 78 E/424

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

funding. Despite submitting all their paperwork by the deadline in June this year, they have been informed
by the Commission that their project has not yet been processed and they will have to wait until the
autumn. They are now in a deficit on this project of about GBP 8 000 which will be reflected in their
annual accounts and may have a detrimental effect on applications for other funding.

What plans does the Commission have to improve deficit funding arrangements which are currently
making it difficult for small but innovative projects and organisations to manage?

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(29 October 2003)

As far as the Project under consideration is concerned, the payment corresponding to the eligible costs has
been made to the project co-ordinator in charge.

The Commission is constantly striving to improve its performance. Within this context and taking into
account the strengthened controls put in place in the context of the Reform and the new financial circuits,
the Commission is taking substantial measures in order to ensure efficient payment of projects, both in
terms of human resources (the services are steadily fulfilling all vacant posts regarding financial
management and payments: out of 16 vacant posts, only one still remains vacant) and in terms of
rationalisation of the financial management (some measures implemented: on the job intensive training, in
addition to the standard requirements; strict implementation of deadlines, both internal and external,
i.e. deadlines given to co-ordinators).

(2004/C 78 E/0444)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2772/03

by Glyn Ford (PSE) to the Commission

(16 September 2003)

Subject: Levels of professional indemnity cover for small insurance firms

Is the Commission planning to instigate any European lower limits regarding professional
indemnity
cover? One of my constituents is concerned about the level of EUR 1 million cover he has to pay as a
small insurance firm.

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(23 October 2003)

The Honourable Member is most likely referring to Directive 2002/92/EC of the Parliament and of the
Council of 9 December 2002 on insurance mediation (1). This Directive will establish a legal regime, which
ensures a high level of professionalism for insurance intermediaries and reinforces the information
requirements to be provided to customers. Customers will therefore be better protected.

The Directive requires that any insurance intermediary shall be registered with a competent authority in
his home Member State, provided that he meets strict professional requirements in relation to his
professional competence, good repute, professional indemnity cover and, where the insurance intermediary
manages funds of his clients, appropriate financial capacity.

The Directive requires that an insurance intermediary shall hold professional indemnity insurance covering
the whole territory of the Community or some other comparable guarantee against liability arising from
professional negligence, for at least EUR 1 million applying to each claim and in aggregate EUR 1,5 million
per year for all claims. This insurance cover or financial guarantee is not required when an insurance
undertaking, a reinsurance undertaking or another undertaking on whose behalf
the insurance or
reinsurance intermediary is acting, takes the full responsibility for the intermediary’s actions (in accordance
with Article 4 (3) of the Directive).

27.3.2004

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 78 E/425

Once the insurance or reinsurance intermediary has been registered in his home Member State he may
conduct business in the entire Community under the freedom of establishment and the free provision of
services.

The Directive shall be applied by Member States as of 15 January 2005.

(1) OJ L 9, 15.1.2003.

(2004/C 78 E/0445)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2779/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(17 September 2003)

Subject: Increase in the volume of mail and freight transported by rail

in Germany and measures to

promote a similar increase in other Member States

1.
Is the Commission aware that in various Member States the carriage of large quantities of mail over
long distances by rail has been or is being terminated, that special mail trains are being scrapped and
replaced by trucks, but that in Germany Deutsche Post, which hitherto has sent mail by rail only between
Hamburg and Munich, now intends to use the same method of transport between Cologne and Berlin and
on other routes, partly because tolls are being introduced for the use of motorways by trucks?

Is the Commission also aware that

2.
in some Member States national railway companies have
contracted out complementary road haulage operations (such as those formerly performed in the
Netherlands by Van Gend en Loos) to other companies, but that in Germany Deutsche Bahn now owns the
road haulage companies Stinnes Logistics and Schenker, which coordinate their operations with DB-cargo,
while the latter provides the rail freight services and, after having taken over this transport in the
Netherlands and Denmark, will in future be operating under the name Railion?

3.
Are these developments in Germany a promising contribution to the Commission’s efforts to restore
rail’s share of the freight market, which has fallen sharply in the recent past, and to permanently increase
it?

4. What will the Commission do to encourage emulation in other Member States of the German
examples, insofar as they strengthen the position of the railways in the transportation of mail and freight?
What obstacles still exist to such emulation and how will they be eliminated?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(4 November 2003)

The Commission monitors closely the situation of the railway market as prescribed by Directive 2001/12/
EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2001 amending Council Directive 91/440/EEC on
the development of the Community’s railways (1). It welcomes the success stories like the one mentioned
by the Honourable Member, as it regrets decisions of railway undertakings to discontinue services such as
international passenger services or postal services. Recent success stories in freight are due to major
changes which occurred in the approach by the railway undertakings of the freight market, now acting
with a view of the global transport chain and as a business. This is the reason why the Commission
pursues a policy of modernising the regulatory framework to enable railway undertakings to provide
competitive national and international rail freight services. The Commission is satisfied to see this policy to
bear fruit in some Member States and particularly in those having already created new competitive
conditions like Germany and the Netherlands.

It seems to be a logical consequence of current demand patterns and customer requirements that railway
undertakings develop European business strategies that integrate logistical services in the transport offer to
the customers. It is their primary responsibility.