Commissie start procedure tegen Ierland over verzekeringsregels (en)

The European Commission i has decided to formally request Ireland to abolish the exemption of the Irish Voluntary Health Insurance Board (VHI) from certain EU rules on non-life insurance. This follows a complaint to the Commission alleging that the VHI is unlawfully pursuing insurance activities without being subject to the First Non-Life Insurance Directive. The Commission's request takes the form of a "reasoned opinion", the second stage of the infringement procedure under Article 226 of the EC Treaty. If there is no satisfactory reply within two months, the Commission may refer the matter to the European Court of Justice.

The European insurance sector has been subject to substantial harmonisation. For non-life insurance, the basic legal act is Directive 73/239/EEC (the First Non-life Directive), as amended and supplemented.

When work on that Directive was initiated in the 1960's, it was considered necessary to exclude certain public or semi-public monopoly institutions providing, in particular, health or fire insurance, from the scope of application of the Directive, and consequently, from all subsequent amendments. Accordingly, Article 4 of the Directive exempted the VHI, among other institutions, from the rules of the Directive. The listed undertakings are not subject to the Directive "unless their statutes or the law are amended as regards capacity".

Undertakings that are not exempted, or can no longer be considered to be exempted from the scope of application of the Directive, must comply with the relevant Non-Life Directives. The Commission, upon observations of the Irish government to the Commission's "letter of formal notice" earlier this year ( IP/07/87 ), concludes that VHI - in light of the legal and commercial developments since its exemption was granted in 1973 - can no longer be considered to fulfil the requirements for exemption under the Directive.

The VHI is mainly regulated by the Voluntary Health Insurance Act of 1957 which sets out the statutory capacity of the VHI. The Commission takes the position that the VHI of today differs considerably in terms of membership and activities from the VHI of 1973 when the exemption was granted. It is clear from the number of amendments to the relevant legislation introduced in 1996, 1998 and 2001 that the capacity of the VHI has changed significantly.

For these reasons, the Commission is of the view that the exemption from the scope of the application of the First Non-Life Insurance Directive is no longer valid. Thus, the VHI has to be made subject to the provisions of EU non-life insurance legislation, and hence be subject to the same regulatory framework as other operators in the market.

Therefore the Commission has requested Ireland to change its legislation accordingly.

The latest information on infringement proceedings concerning all Member States is available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/eulaw/index_en.htm