"The common theme underlying many of these developments is the continued adaptation of individual country legislation to the requirements of EU law. The path to enactment of EU directives is strewn with obstacles and involves conflicts with existing local legal provisions and longstanding legal principles," says Guy Carpenter Managing Director David Lewin in a statement. "We also found that the dominance of EU legislation does not prevent individual EU territories from pursuing their own agendas to create new legal liabilities specific to their own jurisdictions." 

Gender equality was the topic of concern in Belgium and France. In Belgium, the Test-Achats exemption, which allows insurers to consider a policyholder's sex while calculating premiums and benefits, was found to be discriminatory by the European Court except in situations where physiological differences between men and women are a risk factor, such as in the case of reproductive cancers. In France, lifestyle, environment and professional activity may play a key part in assessing insurance risk, but discriminating on gender grounds may not.

Italy's environmental pollution policy has clashed with EU directives stating that the polluter always pays. In Italy, an operator's liability for environmental damage is based on negligence, but if the property owner acted negligently then both operator and landowner are jointly liable. However, an operator holds strict liability under international law.

Political corruption is being fought in Poland with the new act on Financial Liability of Public Servants for Grave Violation of the Law. Public servants had long been granted bonuses depending on the volume of their decisions, controls or levied fines, leading officials to impose superfluous fees. These officials now bear casualty liability for the financial damages which negligently interpreted laws caused citizens.

The Netherlands has consolidated Dutch private international law which had excluded insurance, general insurance and unlawful acts, since their guidelines were previously established by European regulations, statutes, and conventions.

Other covered provisions are Austria's ruling on admissible third-party liability insurers paying indemnification to an insured, the cumulative conditions of Norway's Motor Liability Act. Prompted by a lawsuit against a manufacturer involving injured US citizens, Sweden clarified occupational injury exclusion in product liability insurance. Meanwhile, Germany's has ruled non-adaptation of general insurance policies to differing older insurance contracts, and in Spain, the role of auditors and their responsibility for a companies' financial health has been determined as co-"guarantors" for a businesses' decision, along with the firm.

The paper concluded that the enactment of EU directives face obstacles by existing local legal provisions and historic legal principles, and continues to monitor the progress of these case studies.