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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