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Last Friday, Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, in a speech to the Insurance Institute of London, outlined the European Commission's Solvency II priorities for the insurance sector and assured the audience that it would proceed without late changes.
McCreevy said that, contrary to rumours, there would be no changes to the capital adequacy parts of the agreement. The only changes expected would be to the legal framework to ensure that is meshed well with current European law. He said, “I want to assure you that no amendments will be made to the Solvency II part of the Proposal.” but added, “… there will be an amendment concerning the recast part of the proposal to take account of the observations made in the Report of the legal services of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission concerning that particular part. Besides a number of corrections to the recast, the changes will exclusively reflect amendments which are necessary in order to update the recast to reflect the latest developments in EU legislation.”
The Solvency II timetable was the key political priority, said McCreevy. It is proceeding well under the Lamfalussy process. The EU Parliament Rapporteur will report on the Directive to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs this month and they are expected to approve it in the summer of 2008 and vote in the Plenary in the autumn. The Council and the European Parliament are expected to adopt the Level 1 Framework of the Directive by the end of 2008. CEIPOS has been asked to report on the Solvency II implementation measures by the end of 2009 so that the Level II implementation measures can be adopted by the European Parliament in 2010. All this is on schedule for implementation in 2012.
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