Europe

Mutuals step up lobbying

The European mutual insurance sector is stepping up its efforts to keep the draft Regulation for a European mutual society statute (ME) on the European Parliament’s legislative agenda after the European Commission proposed to withdraw it. At a recent meeting organized by the Association Internationale des Sociétés d’Assurance Mutuelle (AISAM), the Association of European Cooperative and Mutual Insurers (ACME) and the Association Internationale de la Mutualité (AIM), 17 MEPs from different countries and political groups expressed the support for a mutual society statute to be included in the current European company law framework. A draft European Cooperative Society statute was adopted in 2003; this followed the adoption of the Societas Europeae statute in 2001. Pervenche Berès, PES (France), chairwoman of the EP Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, announced at the meeting that the Committee has requested the President of the European Parliament to urge the Commission to reconsider its proposed withdrawal of the draft ME statute. “The absence of an ME would definitely create an uncompetitive situation for the mutual sector” she declared.