The European Commission has today given Portugal and five other countries two months to fully transpose the European Union (EU) directive on car insurance into national legislation, threatening to take legal action.
In the infringement package for the month of November, the community executive indicates that it has decided to send reasoned opinions to Portugal, as well as to Bulgaria, Spain, Latvia, Malta, and Romania, because these member states “have not notified the Commission of the complete transposition of the amended directive on car insurance into national law”.
The deadline for this transposition, from EU law to national law, ended on December 23, 2023, and on January 25 of this year, the European Commission sent a notification letter to these member states, which did not provide a satisfactory response.
The Car Insurance Directive “aims to strengthen the protection of victims of road traffic accidents throughout the EU. To this end, the amended directive clarifies the scope of that protection, facilitates the control of mandatory car insurance, and creates a compensation mechanism for victims in the event of insolvency of the responsible insurer”, the European Commission’s note adds.
Furthermore, the statement notes that this Car Insurance Directive “also facilitates the transition between insurers for policyholders, ensuring fair and non-discriminatory treatment of claims history declarations”.
The communicative executive hopes that with this new two-month deadline, Bulgaria, Spain, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, and Romania will adopt the necessary measures.
“Otherwise, the Commission may decide to refer the cases to the Court of Justice of the European Union”, Brussels adds.
