EU Parliament fights over sustainability criteria for insurance sector

(EurActiv, 5 Sep 2022) In attempts to reach a common position on the review of prudential regulation for the European insurance sector, MEPs expressed starkly diverging opinions on whether and how to account for climate risks in the regulation.

The review of the Solvency 2 prudential regulation was proposed by the EU Commission in September 2021 to update the capital requirements for insurance companies to new economic circumstances.

While EU member states already agreed on a common position regarding this regulation, the European Parliament is still far from a common position.

Scrapping climate provisions

The draft position proposed by the centre-right member of Parliament Markus Ferber was criticised by left and green MEPs for scrapping most of the climate provisions that the EU Commission had proposed to include in the prudential rules.

“The rapporteur’s choice to scrap almost all provisions related to climate risk is quite a scandal in times of the Green Deal,” the green member of Parliament Henrike Hahn told EURACTIV, adding that his “approach to Solvency 2 is a denial of all the recent analysis showing the interlinkages between climate change and financial stability.”

External link

EurActiv, 5 Sep 2022: EU Parliament fights over sustainability criteria for insurance sector