The CEA has launched a new report on how the insurance industry acts as a catalyst for economic growth whilst providing essential social protection services.
The report makes a number of recommendations to policymakers ahead of the annual progress report on the Lisbon Strategy due in early 2007.
CEA President Gérard de La Martinière said: “The European insurance industry makes a major contribution to economic growth: latest figures indicate that it invests more than €6,300bn in the economy, directly employs over a million people and is the world's leading insurance market.
"If the insurance and reinsurance industry is to make an optimum contribution to economic growth and employment, policymakers need to be sure that their actions support enlargement of the scope of insurance, improvement in efficiency and increased competitiveness of the industry.
"The European Commission's Solvency II Project is of key importance in this regard. The Project must seize the opportunity to introduce an economic risk based supervisory framework for the insurance industry.
"Increased public private cooperation will also be necessary to allow Europe to meet the challenge of an aging population. Private insurance, which is already active in areas such as pensions, health and long term care, has the potential to play a much greater role in providing complementary social protection services, hence reducing the strain on public sector budgets and benefiting the European economy.”
