Distributive Trade, Services and Transport. Insurance in Europe. 1995.1.supplement

Abstract

Eurostat has been working for a few years on the development of a European statistical system on insurance enterprises. The elaboration of a first comprehensive publication on life, non-life and specialist reinsurance enterprises was undertaken in this line. Eurostat will edit this publication in early 1996. The information provided in this publication mainly refers to the accounting years 1992 and 1993. It presents the situation of the European insurance markets prior to the opening-up of the European single market. The comprehensive publication will include 18 chapters, one for each of the EEA countries as well as for Switzerland. Additionally, it will provide a comparative analysis of these markets together with some comments on the new legal environment and some perspectives on the Eastern European insurance markets. The present statistical document aims at giving a first idea of the publication to come and assesses the markets of Belgium, Spain and Luxembourg. A further issue reviewing the markets of Germany, Ireland and Switzerland will be published in January 1996. The structure and contents of the country chapters are not fully harmonised as this publication is based on the data available in the contributing countries only. An increased harmonisation is expected in the forthcoming years when the EU Directives and also the legal base for insurance statistics of the EU will come into force. Eurostat shall continue publishing insurance data in the future, on a yearly basis. These publications will however have a different structure with more data and as far as the text is concerned explanatory notes only.