This is election year for the European Union. From 22 to 25 May 2014, a new European Parliament will be elected, followed by a new European Commission appointed for the next five years.

What should we expect from the European Commission before the elections in May? Regarding the current relevant files for FERMA, we will see these new developments during the next five months.

Environmental liability:

The review of the Environmental Liabilities Directive (ELD) will come to an end with the final report for the Commission expected at the end of April. It will be based on the latest studies that will be completed by February over the scope, exemptions and legal aspects of the ELD. The final report will draw conclusions and is meant to suggest different possible options for the new Commission that will take office in November 2014. These options may include a mandatory financial security regime, and an extension of the scope of liable operators or type of environmental damages but this is not definite.

Solvency 2:

The implementing measures, technically known as delegated acts in EU jargon, will describe precisely how the Solvency 2 regime will be applied to the insurance sector. At this stage, the Commission has specifically indicated to the industry that only a few matters will subject to discussion. The Commission will discuss the drafts with member states at the end of January 2014 and will send the draft delegated acts to the European Parliament and Council in July for their approval.

Insurance contract law:

The last meeting of the expert group on European insurance contract law took place on 23-24 January where the members finalised their report for a possible release in February. The report will likely contain sections on liability, life and motor and will deal with possible obstacles to cross-border insurance provision arising from contract law.

For more details about the objective of this group and its report, please refer to this previous article in May 2013 at (https://www.ferma.eu/european-insurance-contract-law-goes-under-the-microscope/). In addition to this article, the full list of the participants to the group is available (here).

What to expect before the European elections? FERMA presentation by Julien Bedhouche from FERMA