Commission Decision of 17 January 2013 on setting up the Commission Expert Group on a European Insurance Contract Law

19.1.2013 EN Official Journal of the European Union C 16/6
COMMISSION DECISION
of 17 January 2013
on setting up the Commission Expert Group on a European Insurance Contract Law
2013/C 16/03
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Whereas:
(1) On 1 July 2010, the Commission launched a consultation on the ‘Green Paper on policy options for progress towards a European contract law for consumers and businesses’ (1). A number of stakeholders from the insurance sector, in particular representatives of insurance undertakings and insurance intermediaries, stated that differences in contract law posed obstacles to cross-border trade in insurance products.
(2) In its resolution of 8 June 2011, the European Parliament reiterated its earlier call to include insurance contracts within the scope of an optional instrument and expressed its belief that such an instrument could be particularly useful for small-scale insurance contracts, while calling on the Commission to establish a dedicated expert group for any future preparatory work on financial services to ensure that any future instrument takes into account the possible specific characteristics of the financial services sector.
(3) Following the ‘Green Paper on policy options for progress towards a European contract law for consumers and businesses’, the Commission adopted a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Common European Sales Law on 11 October 2011. The scope of the proposed Common European Sales Law was limited to contracts for the sale of goods, contracts for the supply of digital content and contracts for related services, as goods account for the major share of intra-EU trade and the trade in digital products has a growing economic importance.
(4) On 16 February 2012, the Commission adopted the White Paper ‘An agenda for adequate, safe and sustainable pensions’, which put forward a package of initiatives with the aim of facilitating the development of complementary private retirement savings. Measure 19, which is part of this package, announced that the Commission would examine the need for removing contract law-related obstacles to the design and distribution of life insurance products with savings/investment functions in order to facilitate the cross-border distribution of certain private pension products.
(5) Having taken into account the stakeholder contributions to the consultation on the ‘Green Paper on policy options for progress towards a European contract law for consumers and businesses’ and having regard to the European Parliament's resolution of 8 June 2011, the Commission considers that the situation in the insurance sector merits a specific in-depth analysis. The Commission is therefore minded to examine whether differences in insurance contract law pose obstacles to cross-border trade in insurance products.
(6) Acknowledging the need to take into account the specific characteristics of the financial services sector, the Commission considers it necessary to set up a group of experts to assist and enable the Commission to draw on a wide range of practical expertise and knowledge for the purpose of its analysis.
(7) The group of experts shall explore whether differences between insurance contract laws of the Member States create barriers to cross-border trade and if so, in which specific insurance areas, including certain life insurance products which could serve as private pensions, this is the case. The group of experts shall issue a report based on its findings.
(8) The group of experts shall be composed of representatives of stakeholders, including the insurance industry, the main users of insurance products and practitioners with experience in drafting insurance contracts. The group of experts may also include experts acting in their personal capacity, such as academics with specific expertise in the area of contract law and in particular insurance contract law. The composition of the group of experts may vary depending on its specific tasks.
(9) Rules on disclosure of information by members of the group of experts should be laid down.
(10) Personal data should be processed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data,