6. Supports the adoption of the ‘home’ country principle – whereby policies written by an insurer, regardless of location of sale, are covered by the ‘home’ IGS – recognising (a) that under Solvency II the cross-border provision of insurance services will increase, and (b) that the failure of an insurer will be linked to the inadequacy of supervision by the ‘home’ supervisor, so that the burden of responsibility for failure should be borne by the ‘home’ IGS, which should provide last-resort protection to consumers only when insurance ...[+++]undertakings are unable to fulfil their contractual commitments owing to insolvency; calls on the Commission to conduct an impact assessment and public consultation with stakeholders on the inclusion of life insurance as a matter of priority and on the practicality of including non-life insurance in a cross-border IGS to ensure an appropriate level of consumer protection and a level playing field between Member States; believes that a rationale should be established by the Commission and the EIOPA in order to ensure that the additional costs of an IGS are weighed against the objective of consumer protection; notes that the current EU regulation on deposit guarantee schemes and investor protection schemes covers only savings products;

6. Supports the adoption of the ‘home’ country principle – whereby policies written by an insurer, regardless of location of sale, are covered by the ‘home’ IGS – recognising (a) that under Solvency II the cross-border provision of insurance services will increase, and (b) that the failure of an insurer will be linked to the inadequacy of supervision by the ‘home’ supervisor, so that the burden of responsibility for failure should be borne by the ‘home’ IGS, which should provide last-resort protection to consumers only when insurance ...[+++]undertakings are unable to fulfil their contractual commitments owing to insolvency; calls on the Commission to conduct an impact assessment and public consultation with stakeholders on the inclusion of life insurance as a matter of priority and on the practicality of including non-life insurance in a cross-border IGS to ensure an appropriate level of consumer protection and a level playing field between Member States; believes that a rationale should be established by the Commission and the EIOPA in order to ensure that the additional costs of an IGS are weighed against the objective of consumer protection; notes that the current EU regulation on deposit guarantee schemes and investor protection schemes covers only savings products;

(e) benefits from a life insurance contract where the contract provides for a biometric risk coverage which, expressed as an average over the duration of the contract, is lower than 5 % of the capital insured and its actual performance is fully linked to interest or income of the kinds referred to in points (a), (aa), (b), (c) and (d); for this purpose any difference between the amounts paid out pursuant to a life insurance contract and the sum of all the payments made to the life insurer und ...[+++]er the same life insurance contract shall be considered benefits from life insurance contracts.

4. Study on part 2 of mandate: To advise members on legal and procedural issues related to this part of the mandate, as well as to collect and analyze relevant background material, the Committee of Inquiry has commissioned an external study on the UK regulatory arrangements related to both prudential supervision and conduct of business rules of life assurance undertakings, seen in the context of the Equitable Life case.

The Directives, which liberalize the supply of life and non-life insurance services on the basis of a single licence, came into force on 1 January 1994 (b) EC/Switzerland Insurance Agreement The Commission has decided to proceed in the Court of Justice against Spain, Ireland and Luxembourg for failure to notify national implementing measures transposing Directive 91/371/EEC (Council Directive of 20 June 1991 on the implementation of the Agreement between the European Economic Community and the Swiss Confederation concerning direct insurance other than life assurance).

Still in the field of insurance, the Commission has decided to close seven infringement procedures against Greece following the notification of national transposition measures for Directives 88/357/EEC (2nd Non-Life Insurance Directive), 90/618/EEC (freedom to provide motor civil liability insurance services), 90/619 (2nd Life Assurance Directive), 91/371 (Directive implementing of the non-life insurance Agreement between the EC and Switzerland), 91/674 (annual accounts and consolidated accounts of insurance ...[+++]companies), 92/49 (3rd Non-Life Insurance Directive) and 92/96 (3rd Life Assurance Directive).