Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-05-19-Speech-5-086"
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"en.20000519.5.5-086"2
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"Mr President, unless the Community guarantees that citizens will be directly compensated for unexpected, major financial risks, people will become dependent on insurance. The more the state withdraws, the stronger and more profitable the insurance sector becomes. Everyone needs insurance these days. At the same time, consumers have a deep distrust of the insurance sector. Everyone fears having to pay premiums that are too high and that the small print in insurance policies means that when problems arise, one has far less right to a pay-out than one had anticipated on taking out the insurance.
The premiums are deemed to be too high and the payouts too low. The ongoing international take-over battle between major insurance companies and banks shows just how sizeable the profits in this sector have now become. In the meantime, this report has made it clear how bureaucratic and complex the regulations are that the European Union must put in place if it is to bring a degree of regulation to the insurance sector. Arrangements must now be put in place whereby insurance companies are authorised, via exemption decisions, to join forces in order to share major risks or to re-insure, without breaking the anti-merger rules.
It is also clear from the report that there have been all manner of complaints about lack of clarity, deadlines, and the question as to whether the current rules turn out to be to the advantage of the insured or the insurer. It would appear that there is in fact no question whatsoever of having the highly commended free competition, but a bureaucratically regulated competition instead.
This begs the question as to whether consumers would benefit far more from democratically controlled, regional institutions than from bureaucratic competition. In the case of the former, everyone would know what factors are taken into account, how premiums are calculated, and that any profits would be put to good use, whereas there would be a complete lack of transparency in the case of the latter.
I am therefore calling for a radical overhaul of the insurance sector, so as to make it transparent and subject to democratic control. Unfortunately, until such time as these improvements have been made, we will have to muddle through with the instruments currently in force. This is better than doing nothing at all. We cannot afford to allow the six-year deadline that was set previously, to elapse, without having put new arrangements in place. Hence my group is proposing to vote in favour of the proposed regulation."@en1
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