By Henrietta Billings - 3rd October 2004
Gender will dominate key employment talks on Monday aimed at clinching a compromise deal over controversial equality laws for men and women outside the workplace.
The most sensitive aspect of the proposals - up for discussion by EU ministers in Luxembourg - concerns insurance where women often pay less for car insurance, because they have less accidents, but more for health cover.
Under the original proposals, insurance companies would have been forced to abandon gender as a factor when calculating premiums - affecting private pensions, car and health insurance.
Now calculations are based on a gender distinction and the widely-held view that women live longer than men.
This means that women pay higher premiums based on their sex, a factor Brussels views as discriminatory.
The plans provoked a chorus of opposition from industry and several countries namely Britain and Slovakia, have strong reservations.
But EU officials are confident that a deal can be reached in Luxembourg today on an alternative solution presented by the Dutch presidency.
The compromise text would allow insurance companies to continue to take gender into account when calculating insurance premiums only if they can justify their methods and prove that it is a decisive factor.
"Companies will be able to use gender under exceptional circumstances, if insurance companies can justify their use of sex as a determining factor," said a spokesman for the European Commission.
The proposals are part of a wider directive bringing the sale of goods and services under the scope of Europe-wide gender laws.
Other items up for discussion include the revised Working Time directive proposals and temporary workers.
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