New EU legislation prepared for export credit insurance with a risk period of under two years
The European Commission has published a draft for a new Communication that will regulate short-term export credit insurance as of the beginning of 2013. Both corporations and private individuals can comment on the draft Communication. Comments can be made until 21 September 2012 on the Commission website:
http://ec.europa.eu/competition/consultations/2012_short_term_export_credit/index_en.html
The purpose of the rules is to prevent competition distortions on the internal market. Nor should there be competition between private and public export credit insurers. In consequence, the Commission specifies the operating sectors where private credit insurers are able to meet the demand.
The basic principle underlying the current legislation remains unchanged in the draft: public actors may not insure exports to certain Western industrialised countries when the risk period is under two years. The list of countries given in the draft is the same as at present, i.e. the Member States of the European Union, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United States of America.
According to the draft, the possibilities of departing from this basic definition are very limited. Exceptions are possible if
- The European Commission decides to remove a country from the list of marketable risk countries (as was already done by the Commission this year for Greece)
- A Member State demonstrates a market failure and is therefore granted exemption to act in a specific sector, which may be:
- exports by SMEs having a total export turnover not exceeding EUR 2 million
- individual risks of over 180 days
- other very weighty reasons.
After the public consultation, the Commission will formulate the final text for the Communication and will publish it by the end of the year. The Communication will enter into force at the beginning of 2013.
Additional information is provided at Finnvera by:
Benita Salenius, Head of Team, tel. 029 460 2715
Taru Eskelinen, Senior Adviser, tel. 029 460 2670
