Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement on motor insurance rules providing more protection, transparency and smoother cooperation throughout the EU.

The amended rules aim to protect injured people when accidents occur in any EU member state, including domestic victims of an accident caused by a driver from another EU country. The agreement also seeks to protect victims of accidents if a liable party’s insurance company goes bankrupt. The new rules require national compensation bodies to meet costs arising from such cases.

While the current rules apply to motor insurance that enables EU residents to travel anywhere in the EU without buying additional insurance, the amended directive allows cross-border insurance checks on vehicles to combat noninsured driving. However, such assessments should be non-discriminatory as part of regular checks and not require cars to stop.

The rules harmonise minimum amounts of cover across the EU:

  • for personal injuries: €6 070 000 per accident or €1 220 000 per injured party;
  • for damages to property: €1 220 000 per accident.

More clarity for pricing and claims history

The agreement introduces mandatory use of a Single Claims History Statement and obligations to inform citizens how to apply for compensation. Additionally, insurance providers will have to treat all EU citizens equally by accepting claims-history statements from another member state as equal to a domestic statement and apply any discounts based on that (such as ‘bonus-malus discounts).

Citizens will compare prices, tariffs and coverage offered by different providers more easily thanks to new free-of-charge and independent price comparison tools.

Avoiding overregulation

The amended rules will also allow non-road vehicles, such as garden tractors, mobility scooters, toy cars, to be excluded and vehicles intended exclusively for motorsports and electric bicycles from insurance obligations to avoid overregulation.

“It was high time to clarify motor insurance rules so that Europeans are better protected and treated equally in the EU when accidents occur and when insuring their vehicles. We have ensured that people are compensated for road accidents where the insurance company goes bankrupt and created new tools for all citizens to compare prices, tariffs and coverage from insurance providers. With this political agreement, we have additionally managed to curb absurd overregulation of motorsports, e-bikes and given member states the tools to exclude mobility scooters, kids’ toys or lawnmowers”, said rapporteur Dita Charanzová (Renew, CZ).

Following measures

The deal will now have to be formally approved by Parliament and Council. Once approved, the directive will enter into force 20 days after publication in the EU Official Journal. The new rules will start to apply 24 months after the entry into force.

Background

The first EU Directive on motor insurance was adopted in 1972 to protect victims of motor vehicle accidents and facilitate the free movement of motor vehicles between member states. Subsequently, five motor insurance Directives progressively protected EU citizens more robustly. In 2009, they were consolidated into one EU Motor Insurance Directive (Directive 2009/103/EC). In 2018, they introduced the proposal to amend the directive.

Source: European Parliament