19 May 2014

InsuranceEurope comments on BioIS study on ELD effectiveness

Measures to achieve this goal could, for example, include clearer significance thresholds for environmental damage as well as a more cohesive description of the difference between dangerous activities and non-dangerous activities. Clarification in these areas can aid insurers in the development of their own ELD-based products and enhance their ability to calculate the insurance capacity required to cover potential ELD risks.

InsuranceEurope stresses, however, that any such amendments should be aimed at clarifying the above matters rather than completely overhauling the ELD. Widening the scope of the ELD too drastically – for example, deleting Annex III in its entirety or introducing liability for environmental damage with incalculable properties – could diminish ELD effectiveness as well as impair the relative insurance market. Therefore, InsuranceEurope strongly recommends that the Commission should consider and carefully assess the impact such revisions can have. In particular the impact on the basic principles of insurance should be seriously taken into account, since in case that ELD is expanded to capture more situations, more undertakings might fall in scope and would have to buy insurance, which would be problematic because of the capacity in the market.

While many of InsuranceEurope’s comments were cited in the BioIS Final Report, some conclusions made in the report seem to disregard Insurance Europe’s recommendations. This is notably with respect to: the potential extension of strict liability; the extension of the scope of environmental damage to air (and additionally, invasive alien species); the significance thresholds for land damage and water damage; harmonisation of the currently optional ELD defences; and the consideration of industrial activities currently covered by international conventions.

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