A wide consultation on the internal market situation in order to measure how fragmented it is from a financial services perspective and to find out what can be done to encourage a widely cross-border activity is to be launched during the following months – probably in September - by the European Commission.
Mr. Gabriel Bernardino, the chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) found that an analysis on the obstacles of cross-border activities is crucial, mainly in case of the insurance market that is particularly insufficiently integrated. Consumers' attitude is still to buy insurance products only in the Member State in which they live and price differences persist between different Member States on almost identical products. The consultation would allow framing the problems related to the fragmentation of markets and their causes, as well as consumer expectations regarding competition and protection.