TITLE I

DEFINITIONS AND SCOPE

Definitions
Article 1
1
For the purposes of this Directive:
a
‘assurance undertaking’ shall mean an undertaking which has received official authorisation in accordance with Article 4;
b
‘branch’ shall mean an agency or branch of an assurance undertaking;
Any permanent presence of an undertaking in the territory of a Member State shall be treated in the same way as an agency or branch, even if that presence does not take the form of a branch or agency, but consists merely of an office managed by the undertaking's own staff or by a person who is independent but has permanent authority to act for the undertaking as an agency would;
c
‘establishment’ shall mean the head office, an agency or a branch of an undertaking;
d
‘commitment’ shall mean a commitment represented by one of the kinds of insurance or operations referred to in Article 2;
e
‘home Member State’ shall mean the Member State in which the head office of the assurance undertaking covering the commitment is situated;
f
‘Member State of the branch’ shall mean the Member State in which the branch covering the commitment is situated;
g
‘Member State of the commitment’ shall mean the Member State where the policy holder has his/her habitual residence or, if the policy holder is a legal person, the Member State where the latter's establishment, to which the contract relates, is situated;
h
‘Member State of the provision of services’ shall mean the Member State of the commitment, if the commitment is covered by an assurance undertaking or a branch situated in another Member State;
i
‘control’ shall mean the relationship between a parent undertaking and a subsidiary, as defined in Article 1 of Council Directive 83/349/EEC , or a similar relationship between any natural or legal person and an undertaking;
j
‘qualifying holding’ shall mean a direct or indirect holding in an undertaking which represents 10 % or more of the capital or of the voting rights or which makes it possible to exercise a significant influence over the management of the undertaking in which a holding subsists;
For the purposes of this definition, in the context of Articles 8 and 15 and of the other levels of holding referred to in Article 15, the voting rights referred to in Article 92 of Directive 2001/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 May 2001 on the admission of securities to official stock exchange listing and on information to be published on those securities shall be taken into consideration;
k
‘parent undertaking’ shall mean a parent undertaking as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of Directive 83/349/EEC;
l
‘subsidiary’ shall mean a subsidiary undertaking as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of Directive 83/349/EEC; any subsidiary of a subsidiary undertaking shall also be regarded as a subsidiary of the undertaking which is those undertakings' ultimate parent undertaking;
m
‘regulated market’ shall mean:
- in the case of a market situated in a Member State, a regulated market as defined in Article 1(13) of Directive 93/22/EEC, and
- in the case of a market situated in a third country, a financial market recognised by the home Member State of the assurance undertaking which meets comparable requirements. Any financial instruments dealt in on that market must be of a quality comparable to that of the instruments dealt in on the regulated market or markets of the Member State in question;
n
‘competent authorities’ shall mean the national authorities which are empowered by law or regulation to supervise assurance undertakings;
o
‘matching assets’ shall mean the representation of underwriting liabilities which can be required to be met in a particular currency by assets expressed or realisable in the same currency;
p
‘localisation of assets’ shall mean the existence of assets, whether movable or immovable, within a Member State but shall not be construed as involving a requirement that movable assets be deposited or that immovable assets be subjected to restrictive measures such as the registration of mortgages; assets represented by claims against debtors shall be regarded as situated in the Member State where they are realisable;
q
capital at risk shall mean the amount payable on death less the mathematical provision for the main risk;
r
‘close’ links shall mean a situation in which two or more natural or legal persons are linked by:
1. participation, which shall mean the ownership, direct or by way of control, of 20 % or more of the voting rights or capital of an undertaking; or
2. control, which shall mean the relationship between a parent undertaking and a subsidiary, in all the cases referred to in Article 1(1) and (2) of Directive 83/349/EEC, or a similar relationship between any natural or legal person and an undertaking; any subsidiary undertaking of a subsidiary undertaking shall also be considered a subsidiary of the parent undertaking which is at the head of those undertakings.
A situation in which two or more natural or legal persons are permanently linked to one and the same person by a control relationship shall also be regarded as constituting a close link between such persons.
2
Wherever this Directive refers to the euro, the conversion value in national currency to be adopted shall as from 31 December of each year be that of the last day of the preceding month of October for which euro conversion values are available in all the relevant Community currencies.
OJ L 193, 18.7.1983, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Directive 2001/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 283, 27.10.2001, p. 28).
OJ L 184, 6.7.2001, p. 1.