We have reached an impasse with the Department for Transport in my long running campaign for wide ranging reform to the Road Traffic Act 1988 as well as the MIB Agreements. The DfT has decided to continue with its limited reform regardless. So I have today submitted a detailed complaint to the European Commission.
My infringement complaint
identifies a large number of potential breaches of Community law, including:
- Unlawful geographic and technical restrictions to the wider scope of the insurance cover required;
- Inappropriate allocation and treatment of compulsorily insured claims as uninsured claims under a more onerous scheme;
- Wrongful exclusions of liability;
- Wrongful deductions made from a claimant’s full compensatory entitlement in untraced and uninsured driver claims;
- Extensive failures to comply with the Community law legal certainty principle and the principles of equivalence and effectiveness.
I argue that the
United Kingdom’s failure to meet the minimum standards of compensatory
protection required under Community law is systemic: one that encompasses its
Legislature, its Judiciary and its Executive, including the Motor Insurers
Bureau, which I also contend to be an emanation of the United Kingdom
state. I am convinced that unless the
Commission and / or the Court of Justice intervene, this unsatisfactory state
of affairs will continue indefinitely.
But don’t hold your
breath!
The complaint might not be
accepted. The European Commission also has
a complete discretion on whether to take any action and the process can take
years. I have asked the Commission to try
persuasion first, rather than compulsion.
