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		EU's double whammy for women's insurance Tuesday, 9 March 2004 A new EU measure designed to ensure equality for men and women could end up costing the average woman in Britain an extra £100 a year - and could damage the insurance industry into the bargain. The proposal calls for equal treatment for men and women in the supply of goods and services. But at the moment, women benefit from lower car insurance rates - because they tend to drive more safely than men - and from lower life insurance, because on average they live longer. According to the Association of British Insurers, the change could cost women in Britain an average of an extra £100 a year. Insurers point out that their business involves assessing risks on a range of factors, including age, occupation, location, health status and driving history, as well as sex. But to exclude one of these factors arbitrarily will distort pricing, and disadvantage women who currently enjoy lower rates. Yesterday in the EU parliament's Industry Committee in Strasbourg, East Midlands Conservative MEP Roger Helmer introduced amendments designed to exclude insurance from the measure and to maintain favourable terms for women. In a very tight vote, the amendments were lost because one East Midlands Lib-Dem MEP, Bill Newton Dunn, voted against. The proposal still has to go through further stages before it becomes law. Commenting on yesterday's vote, Mr Helmer said: "If this measure goes through its later stages, and becomes law, women in Leicestershire will know that the higher rates they pay are down to Newton Dunn.” In his report on the measure, Roger Helmer agreed that arbitrary or unfair discrimination should be banned, but insisted that differential pricing based on hard evidence was an essential part of the insurance business, and should be protected.