The European Commission has published a four week consultation reviewing the Motor Insurance Directive (MID Directive 2009/103/EC).
The review, known as an 'Inception Impact Assessment' (IIA), considers four specific issues under the Directive:
- The portability of claims history statements.
- The role and functions of Motor Guarantee Funds.
- Minimum levels of cover.
- The scope of the Directive, specifically in relation to the European Court of Justice (EJC) ruling in Damijan Vnuk v Zavarovalnica Triglv d.d. (c-162/13).
The IIA has indicated the first two issues will be dealt with by the end of 2017, but has remained silent on the timescale for the remaining two issues. An open public consultation will be carried out once the IIA review has closed.
In relation to the scope of the Directive, the European Commission is seeking views on the same four options from the previous 2016 consultation on Vnuk:
- Do nothing.
- Create new guarantee funds.
- Limit the scope to 'in traffic'.
- Exclude certain types of vehicles from the Directive.
No preference was given by the European Commission in the IIA which is contrary to their road map document in June 2016 in which the Commission indicated they preferred to limit the scope of the Directive to the use of vehicles 'in traffic'.
Interestingly we are still awaiting the Government's response to the UK's consultation considering implementing the effects of the ECJ ruling in Vnuk.
The consultation, Motor Insurance: consideration of the Vnuk judgment, ran from 20 December 2016 to 13 April 2017. It considered how to amend the UK's legal position to accord with the judgment. It questioned what type of vehicle would be compulsory to insure and could potentially result in compulsory insurance for previously uninsured vehicles such as lawnmowers and mobility scooters, or as the Foreign Secretary put it; "anything from dodgems, to segways, to scooters, to your granny's motorised bath-chair". The Government's preferred approach is limiting compulsory insurance to vehicles 'in traffic' which would include areas where the public has access but would not extend to purely private land.
The European Commission consultation will close on Monday 21 August.
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