The Solvency ii
Directive
(51)
Provision should be made for a system of sanctions
to be imposed
when, in the Member State of the commitment or in which the risk is
situated, an insurance undertaking does not comply with any
applicable provisions protecting the general good.
(52) In an
internal market for insurance, consumers have a wider and more
varied choice of contracts.
If they are to
benefit fully from this
diversity and from increased competition, they should be provided
with whatever information is necessary before the conclusion of the
contract and throughout the term of the contract to enable them to
choose the contract best suited to their needs.
(53) An
insurance undertaking offering assistance contracts should possess
the means necessary to provide the benefits in kind which it offers
within an appropriate period of time.
Special provisions should be
laid down for calculating the Solvency Capital Requirement and the
absolute floor of the Minimum Capital Requirements which such
undertaking should possess.
(54) The effective pursuit of
Community co-insurance business for activities which are by reason
of their nature or their size likely to be covered by international
co-insurance should be facilitated by a minimum of harmonisation in
order to prevent distortion of competition and differences in
treatment.
In this context, the leading insurance undertaking should
assess claims and fix the amount of technical provisions.
Moreover,
special co-operation should be provided for in the Community
co-insurance field both between the supervisory authorities of the
Member States and between those authorities and the
Commission.
(55) In the interest of the protection of insured
persons, national law concerning legal expenses insurance should be
harmonised.
Any conflicts of interest arising, in particular from
the fact that the insurance undertaking is covering another person
or is covering a person in respect of both legal expenses and any
other class of insurance should be precluded as far as possible or
be able to be resolved.
To this end, a suitable level of protection
of policyholders can be achieved by different means.
Whichever
solution is adopted, the interest of persons having legal expenses
cover should be protected by equivalent safeguards.
(56)
Conflicts between insurance undertakings covering
legal expenses and
insured persons should be settled in the fairest and speediest
manner possible.
It is therefore appropriate that Member States
provide for an arbitration procedure or a procedure offering
comparable guarantees.
(57) In some Member States,
private or
voluntary health insurance serves as a partial or complete
alternative to health cover provided for by the social security
systems.
The particular nature of such health insurance,
distinguishes it from other classes of indemnity insurance and life
insurance insofar as it is necessary to ensure that policyholders
have effective access to private health cover or health cover taken
out on a voluntary basis regardless of their age or risk profile.
Given that nature and the social consequences of health insurance
contracts, the supervisory authorities of the Member State in which
a risk is situated should be able to require systematic notification
of the general and special policy conditions in the case of private
or voluntary health insurance in order to verify that such contracts
are a partial or complete alternative to the health cover provided
by the social security system.
Such verification should not be a
prior condition for the marketing of the products.
(58) To
this end some Member States have adopted specific legal provisions.
To protect the general good, it should be possible to adopt or
maintain such legal provisions in so far as they do not unduly
restrict the right of establishment or the freedom to provide
services, it being understood that such provisions should apply in
an identical manner.
Those legal provisions may differ in nature
according to the conditions in each Member State.
The objective of
protecting the general good may also be achieved by requiring
undertakings offering private health cover or health cover taken out
on a voluntary basis to offer standard policies in line with the
cover provided by statutory social security schemes at a premium
rate at or below a prescribed maximum and to participate in loss
compensation schemes.
As a further possibility, it may be required
that the technical basis of private health cover or health cover
taken out on a voluntary basis be similar to that of life
insurance.
(59) Host Member States should be able to require
any insurance undertaking which offers, within their territories,
compulsory insurance against accidents at work at its own risk
to
comply with the specific provisions laid down in their national law
on such insurance.
However,
such a requirement should not apply to
the provisions concerning financial supervision, which should
remain the exclusive responsibility of the home Member State.
(59a)
Some Member States do not subject insurance transactions to any form
of indirect taxation, while the majority apply special taxes and
other forms of contribution, including surcharges intended for
compensation bodies.
The structures and rates of such taxes and
contributions vary considerably between the Member States in which
they are applied.
It is desirable to
prevent existing differences
leading to distortions of competition in insurance services between
Member States.
Pending subsequent harmonisation, application of the
tax systems and other forms of contribution provided for by the
Member States in which risks are situated or commitments entered
into is likely to remedy that problem and it is for the Member
States to make arrangements to ensure that such taxes and
contributions are collected.
(60) Those Member States not
subject to the application of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law
applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) should apply the
provisions of that Regulation in order to determine the law
applicable to contracts of insurance falling within the scope of
Article 7 of the Regulation.
  
Return to Index
Solvency ii Introduction (1) to (10)
Solvency ii Introduction (11) to (20)
Solvency ii Introduction (21) to (30)
Solvency ii Introduction (31) to (40)
Solvency ii Introduction (41) to (50)
Solvency ii Introduction (51) to (60)
Solvency ii Introduction (61) to (70)
Solvency ii Introduction (71) to (80)
Solvency ii Introduction (81) to (95)
Solvency ii Articles 1 to 10
Solvency ii Articles 11 to 20
Solvency ii Articles 21 to 30
Solvency ii Articles 31 to 39
Solvency ii Articles 40 to 49
Solvency ii Articles 50 to 62
Solvency ii Articles 63 to 71
Solvency ii Articles 72 to 85
Solvency ii Articles 86 to 99
Solvency ii Articles 100 to 125
Solvency ii Articles 126 to 142
Solvency ii Articles 143 to 159
Solvency ii Articles 160 to 173
Solvency ii Articles 174 to 203
Solvency ii Articles 204 to 215
Solvency ii Articles 216 to 233
Solvency ii Articles 234 to
262
Solvency ii Articles 263 to 298
Solvency ii Articles 300 to 313
Solvency ii ANNEX 1 to 3
Solvency ii ANNEX 4 to 5
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