S.I. No. 276/1976 - European Communities (Non-Life Insurance) (Amendment) Regulations, 1976.

I, JUSTIN KEATING, Minister for Industry and Commerce, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act, 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), and for the purpose of giving effect to Council Directive No. 76/580/EEC,* hereby make the following Regulations:

*OJ No. L189, 13/7/1976, pages 13 and 14.

1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Non-Life Insurance) (Amendment) Regulations, 1976, and shall come into operation on the 31st day of December, 1976.

2. (1) The European Communities (Non-Life Insurance) Regulations, 1976 ( S.I. No. 115 of 1976 .), are hereby amended by the substitution in Article 2 (1) thereof of the following for the definition of "unit of account":

" 'unit of account' means the European unit of account, (EUA), namely, the sum of the equivalent in the currency of the State of the following amounts of the currencies of the Member States of the European Economic Community—

(2) Wherever the European Communities (Non-Life Insurance) Regulations, 1976, refer to the unit of account, the conversion value of the European unit of account in the currency of the State shall, as from 31st December of each year, be that of the last day of the preceding October for which conversion values of the European unit of account are available in all the currencies of the Community.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 29th day of November, 1976.

JUSTIN KEATING,

Minister for Industry and Commerce.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

In calculating the solvency margin and minimum guarantee fund of non-life insurance undertakings, the unit of account hitherto used was that in the Statute of the European Investment Bank, i.e. the value of a certain weight of gold. The value of the new European unit of account, (E.U.A.), in Irish £'s is the equivalent in Irish £'s of the sum of certain fixed, weighted amounts of the currencies of the Member States of the E.E.C. The conversion rates against the E.U.A. are published each day in the Official Journal of the European Communities. The value of the E.U.A. for insurance supervisory purposes shall, as from 31st December in one year to 30th December in the following year, be the value obtaining on the last day of October in the first mentioned year for which conversion rates are available.