COB’s General Assembly, hosted this year by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) in the UK, took place on 6-7 June, in Windsor and had a special focus on the 75th anniversary of COB. Given the significance of the year, it was appropriate that the annual event took place in the country where the COB was originally formed in 1949, and where it operated for many years before its move to Brussels.
As COB’s President Sandra SCHWARZ has emphasized at another recent insurance conference, "over the years, since the establishment of the Green Card System, the situation for road accident victims has significantly improved. The system has worked very well in protecting road accident victims and enhancing road safety in the countries within its scope.” However, under the current geopolitical situation the level of protection has decreased in some cases because of sanctions that make the operations of the Green Card System impossible in certain countries. COB is working on solutions to address this situation, as well as reforming the Green Card System, by simplifying somewhat the procedures and transitioning to a more digital form of operations.
Approximately 130 delegates and guests from across the COB membership attended the event in Windsor.
Amongst the speakers at the General Assembly were COB President, Sandra Schwarz; Dominic Clayden, Chief Executive of the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB); Nicolas Jeanmart of Insurance Europe; Konstantinos Alexopoulos of UNECE and Didier Millerot of the European Commission.
There were also detailed reports from COB Managing Director, Greet Floré; COB Legal Managing Director Luk De Baere and COB Vice President Sorin Greceanu.
Other contributors to the proceedings included Daniel Wernli, John Reynolds, Mihai Necrelescu, Raquel Lopez, Alina Osoianu, Michal Szysko, Cecilia Fabiannsson Huss and Janne Jumppanen.
Formerly known as the Council of Bureaux, COB comprises 60 organisations and is active across 48 different countries. It co-ordinates the activities of the Green Card system and the Protection of Visitors system. The COB’s mission is to facilitate free movement in cross-border road traffic by removing administration barriers and to offer a high level of protection to victims of cross-border road traffic accidents by facilitating compensation procedures.
COB operates under the United Nations’ aegis and also cooperates with the EU institutions.
