Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-21-Speech-2-248"
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"en.20031021.7.2-248"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in actual fact, I am taking the floor as chairman of the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market to acknowledge the work done by the vice-chairman, Mr Rothley. This proposal for a directive has been developed with great tenacity and intelligence by Mr Rothley, and I want to give him credit for it here. We are particularly grateful to him because this directive has come about as a result of Article 192, for which I have a particular fondness, as it is an indirect legislative initiative which gives Parliament a leading role and which also confirms the right of initiative of Parliament and its Members.
In such a sensitive industry, this leads to more effective European citizenship because, as Mr Rothley has said, it makes it easier to take out a short-term policy for a temporary stay in another Member State and to get short-term insurance for a vehicle purchased outside the owner’s Member State of residence. As a result, it will be simpler to purchase a car in any country in the Union where the best terms are available. I think this will be of interest to a great many European citizens, because of that single insurance market that Mr Bolkestein was talking about and which is thus established, and it will be a valuable and useful development for the European Community as a whole.
The most sensitive part of the report – it has already been underlined, but I should like to reiterate it – concerns the higher levels of cover laid down by the Member States. The Commission had set a sum of EUR 1 million per victim in cases of personal injury and EUR 500 000 per accident for damage to property. We believe EUR 5 million per accident for personal injury and EUR 2 million for property damage would be more appropriate and flexible and could be a compromise position. I must formally give Mr Rothley the credit for this compromise, because he has taken into account the various situations that exist in the insurance market, once again with a view to achieving a single insurance market. He has also addressed the issue of legal costs. It was not appropriate at this stage, however, to extend insurance cover to injuries sustained by pedestrians and cyclists as a result of accidents in which they were involved, because this is an even more sensitive area and I think it may need to be regulated by a specific measure.
If, as Mr Bolkestein has recognised, Parliament and the Commission have worked well and usefully together, I hope that the Council and the Commission will take our amendments to heart and that such an important directive as this will be able to help to bring the citizens of Europe closer together in common citizenship. I very much hope this will happen, because the compromise that has been reached is an excellent balance, which I hope the Commission will take into account."@en1
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